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,*' V# 







THE RAT-TRAP 


By the Same Author 
The Story of Eden 



THE 

RAT-TRAP 


By 

DOLF WYLLARDE 



JOHN LANE 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 
MCMIV 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 

Tv*o Copies Koc«iv«4 

MAR 24 1904 

C*pyriKM Entry 
CLASS Ol XXo Mo 

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COPY A. 


Copyright 1^04 
By John Lane 


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Set Up and Electrotyped by 
Hublby Printing Co., Ltd., York, Pa., U. S. A. 
Printed by 

Braunworth & Co., Brooklyn, U. S. A. 




TO 

THE GENERAL PUBLIC 


The only critic 
whose opinion is finally 
worth having 


» 

; 

>• 







j 

CHARACTERS 

Evelyn Gregory, Administrator and Colonial Secretary of 
Key Island 

Alfred Halton, commissioned to enquire into the causes of 
recent riots when the island was under the administra- 
tion of the British African Island Company 
The Hon. Arthur White, Attorney- General of Key 
Island 

Major Bute Churton (the Wessex Regiment), Officer 
commanding H. M. Troops in Key Island 
Gifford Ambroise, Town Warden of Port Albert 
John Burton, Town Warden of China Town 
Melton Hanney, British Consul at Port Cecil, East Africa 
Captain Alaric Lewin (28th Lancers), Private Secretary 
and A. D. C. to the Administrator of Key Island 
Captain Bristow Nugent (Wessex Regiment) 

Lieutenant Hamilton Gurney (Wessex Regiment) 

Captain Wray Gilderoy (Royal Garrison Artillery at Key 
Island) 

Second Lieutenant Edward Rennie (Royal Garrison Ar- 
tillery at Key Island) 

Lieutenant George Clayton (Army Service Corps) 

The Rev. Archie Lysle (Chaplain to the Forces) 

Captain Ritchie Stern, R.N., commanding H.M.S. Greville 
The Hon. James Denver, Sugar Planter, Member of the 
Legislative Council 

Abdallah, Captain Lewin’ s Arab butler 
Leoline Lewin, Captain Lewin ’s wife 
Diana Churton, Major Churton’s wife 
Alice Gilderoy, Captain Gilderoy’ s wife 
Eva Clayton, Lieutenant Clayton’s wife 
Blanche Stern, Captain Ritchie Stern’s wife 
Mrs. Arthur White (wife of the Attorney-General) 
Beatrix Denver (James Denver’s daughter) 



CHAPTER I 


« Beware of fire, of water, of savage dogs, and of the man who 
talks under his breath .” — English Proverb. 

The troop-ship was twenty-four hours before her 
time in arriving, which put the authorities out, for 
they like to take their leisure in Key Island and 
as the thermometer rarely stands below 88° in the 
shade they have some reason for their objection 
to hurry. The bungalow which Government had 
thoughtfully apportioned to the private secretary 
and A.D.C. to the Administrator was not ready, and 
word came down to the ship that he must please to 
spend the night at the hotel, whereat Captain Alaric 
Lewin swore in fluent English (he could have done 
the same in five differ^ent languages) and wanted to 
know why the several dashes Government had 
parted him from his regiment and sent him to an 
asterisk, hole like Key Island, if they did not mean 
to provide him with a blank shelter when he got 
there. It was all very well for his predecessor, who 
had been a bachelor; but Captain Lewin was a 
married man, and a six-months-old husband to 
boot. He objected to taking his wife to dubious 
Colonial hotels ” — so-called. 

Out in the sunshine of the deck Mrs. Lewin was 
sitting among her baggage (while she waited for her 
lord and master to have arranged matters before 
taking her ashore), because she knew no better, the 


2 


THE RAT-TRAP 


atmospheric conditions and effects of Key Island 
being as yet a sealed book to her. She was watch- 
ing the men formed up and marched off the gang- 
way, and formed up again on the wharf, and finally 
departing in a cloud of dust and sunshine to the 
barracks on the Maitso Hill. Now and then an 
officer saluted her in passing, and she nodded back 
and smiled, for the five days out from Cape Town 
had been worth an intimacy of three weeks on 
shore. There was idle speculation in her gaze as it 
rested on this small corner of the British Empire, 
in which her present lot was cast ; but in this present 
moment of coming close to it Key Island was no 
more than a flat picture on her mind of an absurd 
little white town tufted with palms, and completely 
overweighted by that harbour and the wharves 
which the Government were converting into a great 
coaling station, the whole shut in by the exquisite 
hills, loaded with timber and softly drawn against a 
sky of pure deep blue. There is no bluer sky than 
that which hangs above Key Island, and reflects 
itself in the Mozambique Channel all round it on a 
clear day, but Mrs. Lewin saw no more than the 
outward semblance of the place. It takes characters 
in a landscape to endue it with vitality either to 
present sense or bitter memory. All she saw on 
this occasion was the green slopes of Maitso and 
Mitsinjovy, forming each side of the bay, and 
beyond them the principal feature of the harbour, 
— two great conical rocks, rising sheer from the sea 
to the height of two thousand feet, which the Eng- 
lish call the Gates, but the native population, who 
have caught strange words from Madagascar, name 
Teraka and Tsofotra, Sunrise and Sunset. There 
is a half-mile of blue water between the base of the 
right and left Gate, and between them the troop- 
ship had but lately passed, giving Mrs. Lewin a 


THE RAT-TRAP 


3 


profile view of their frowning sides. It was prac- 
tically impossible not to see the Gates, because they 
were as giants in the landscape ; but the significance 
of their name and position, shutting in the little 
tropical island at which she had but just arrived, 
was as yet an unknown tongue to her. She had 
not heard them close softly behind her, and bar the 
way to the outer world, as residents grow to fancy 
that they have after a while. 

“ Port Victoria ! ” said Mrs. Lewin musingly, her 
thoughts reverting to the tumbled houses and the 
windy palms. “ I wonder if it will ever grow up 
to its name ? At present it might be called Little 
Vic.” 

Her thoughts were distracted by the white figure 
of her husband coming along the deck, and distinct 
against the other units in khaki as a white sheep 
amongst a flock of brown. He was immaculate, 
but cross, and one end of his moustache was caught 
between his teeth, and his handsome face looked 
darker than usual because he did not appear upon 
the edge of a smile, which was his normal ex- 
pression. 

We must go to the hotel. Chum,” he said. 

No help for it. Come out of the sun. What 
made you sit there ? ” 

I don’t feel it very hot. Don’t bother about 
me. Ally, I expect the hotel will be bearable — you 
wouldn’t mind it for yourself.” The habit of a life- 
time, rather than the relationship of six months, had 
taught Leoline Lewin to classify every shade on her 
husband’s face with sub-conscious accuracy. She 
had no least intention of knowing Ally’s mind for 
him, but she did it all the same. 

There is no help for it, anyway,” Captain Lewin 
said. I’ve got a buggy — our luggage will come 
up behind us.” 


4 


THE RAT-TRAP 


Mrs. Lewin followed him off the boat and across 
the dusty road to the Customs House, and so 
through the farce of having their luggage ex- 
amined, to the ramshackle conveyance drawn by a 
broken-kneed pony, which was bunched up for- 
lornly in the shade of the Customs House. 

“ Couldn’t we go up by tram. Ally ? ” she said, a 
little comically. “ This is so musty — and the trams 
look quite clean and airy ! ” 

“ Oh, they are only intended for the niggers, 
going up and down from the coaling, or for people 
connected with the wharves ! ” remarked Captain 
Lewin with unusual irony. “ Everything exists 
here simply to be a convenience to the wharves and 
the coaling, you will find. Mere human beings 
don’t count in the new Government scheme ! ” He 
helped her into the buggy, and flung his own big 
dissatisfied self into the seat beside her, which 
creaked beneath his weight, for Captain Lewin rode 
twelve stone for his five feet eleven inches. The 
buggy rumbled along, pitching like a ship, and gave 
Mrs. Lewin a glimpse of open stores and motley 
groups of coloured people, an undrained street, and 
now and then a large, hard building, obviously new 
and solid, and as out of keeping with the older 
houses as the town with the harbour. The whole 
place had an unfinished appearance, as of a pro- 
duction begun by one workman and put down as 
hopeless, and then taken up by another who had 
not yet matured his plan for improvement. 

The buggy came to a stop before one of the 
older houses, a long rough bungalow with a wide 
stoep, and empty doorways like open mouths, in 
and out of which a small white Chinaman passed 
now and then, monotonously bent on business. 
These were the waiters and servants of the Hotel 
Natale, who bore the badge of the place on their 


THE RAT-TRAP 


5 


grass-cloth liveries, and the caps on their heads, 
^which, by the way, they only wore until it should 
be time to shave themselves, according to the laws 
of Confucius. They swarmed out of the place like 
the white ants on the wooden railing to the stoep, 
spread themselves on the luggage in the hinder 
cart, and carried Captain and Mrs. Lewin into the 
hotel in a whirlwind of their own property. 

“ Get us two rooms — and be quick about it ! ” 
Alaric said shortly. “ Fm very sorry, Chum — but 
at all events it’s a place to rest and clean up in.” 

His wife had passed him and walked into the cool 
shadows beyond the stoep with some interest and 
curiosity in her face. She was a tall girl, and had 
an enquiring way of carrying her chin, but her in- 
terest was really unfeigned, for beyond England her 
experiences had been limited to the Continent, and 
there was nothing Continental in the Hotel Natale. 
Before Mrs. Lewin stretched a long carpetless pas- 
sage, some seventeen feet high, and lighted by one 
large whitewashed window at the further end. It 
was the only real window, with glass panes, in Port 
Victoria, as she afterwards found, and its proprietor 
was proud of it. All the rest consisted of frames 
filled with wooden blinds, or shutters that would 
shift up and down, to let in the air or shut out the 
light. The windows in Mrs. Lewin’s bedroom were 
on this plan, as she found when the Chinese scurried 
before her and piled her boxes in the middle of the 
huge bare room. There was neither light nor bell 
in the hotel, but they brought her one candle, and 
Ally’s dressing-room was next door, so she man- 
aged as best she might. By and by she wandered 
in to him to see how he fared, and found his apart- 
ment the counterpart of her own, as to furnishing — 
a narrow bed, with a dirty mosquito curtain over it, 
a chest of drawers, without paint or key, a basket- 


6 


THE RAT-TRAP 


work chair, a washstand, and a looking-glass. 
Captain Lewin in his shirt-sleeves appeared the 
most valuable thing in the room. A good-looking 
man is never more good-looking than in that 
severely simple costume, and despite the fact that he 
was red from wrestling with his shirt case, and 
swearing at the hotel and all its resources all over 
again, he seemed to his wife a goodly possession. 

“ What are you doing. Ally ? " Mrs. Lewin said, 
coming to the rescue, and taking the keys out of 
his hand with cool, soft fingers. “ Here, you help- 
less boy. I’ll valet you to-night. I suppose the 
Chinese are not reliable ? ” 

“ Don’t suppose they know the use of a stud, 
except to loot it. It’s awfully good of you. Chum. 
Got it open, already? I’ll engage a man before 
I’m many hours older. But look here, if you’ll un- 
pack the things I shall want. I’ll go and get you 
some tea ! ” 

She laughed at the wheedling tone, and accepted 
the bribe. Even at five o’clock in the day it was 
hot, with the clinging, muscle-sapping heat of the 
tropics, but Chum had the vitality and sting of an 
English winter still in her veins, and did not suffer 
as yet. She did some unpacking — her own as well 
as Ally’s — and drank the tea he ordered in lieu of 
his own whiskey and soda ; and then she dressed 
for dinner, coming into his room again to have her 
blouse fastened, for it hooked at the back. Ally 
was in a better temper ; he manipulated the com- 
plicated fastening wonderfully with his large hands, 
and stooped to kiss his wife’s pretty neck. 

“ You’re too good to be wasted on this damned 
hole — beg pardon. Chum ! ” he said, “ I wish I’d 
got you out to Malta, or some other decent 
station.” 

What does it matter, old boy ? The blouse is 


THE RAT-TRAP 


7 


just as pretty for you to look at on Key Island, and 
you can’t hope for Malta at your age without un- 
precedented luck. Let’s make the best of our step 
up — private secretary and A.D.C. is something, 
anyway.” 

I expect it will be too, with this man. I was 
told at Cape Town he was a Tartar.” 

“ Know anything of him ? ” 

“ Nothing. He’s been somewhere on the Indian 
frontier, quelling rebellions without much cere- 
mony, and a good deal of unofficial slaughter. The 
Government always sends him out when there’s 
trouble to squash, and then censures him when he’s 
done it. He’s here now to expiate his sins, his 
measures having been a little too drastic to be 
winked at any longer.” 

“ Oh ! ” said Chum thoughtfully, “ he must be 
one of our few strong men. And they are worth 
having behind you. Ally. Let us annex the Ad- 
ministrator, you and I, and make him the good 
geni of our fortunes ! ” 

“ It would be the first time that Gregory was 
any one’s good geni ! ” said Ally dryly. “ They 
say he works his men to death, and when he can 
get no more out of ’em, he throws ’em aside like 
a spent cartridge-case. Come on. Chum — that 
fiendish row on a gong means some sort of a meal, 
I suppose.” 

“ Is my hair all right ? ” said Mrs. Lewin care- 
lessly, as she tucked her hand into his arm. 

He looked down at her somewhat critically, for 
he set much store by appearance, and nodded. 
From his point of view it was unfortunate that 
Leoline was cast in too individual a mould to be 
turned out quite like the well-groomed, clean young 
Englishwoman whom the Mother Country breeds 
in serviceable batches as wives for sensible men. 


8 


THE RAT-TRAP 


But common-sense had done much for Mrs. Alaric 
Lewin, and had made her as near her husband’s 
ideal as Nature would go. It was really only her 
hair which gave Chum much anxiety now, for its 
splendid weight and ripples did not lend themselves 
very well to the mode of the moment, but she 
laboured with it earnestly, and by the aid of a hair- 
net gave it something the sameness of other 
women’s. She had no desire to be conspicuous. 

“ It’s all right — but don’t wear it over your ears, 
whatever you do ! ” Ally advised, as they went 
down the empty, echoing passage arm in arm. 

We can stand anything but that.” 

“ But, Ally, it’s the fashion — which doesn’t 
matter ; and a pretty one — which does ! ” 

Can’t help it. Men alw^ays hate it. When we 
see a woman with her hair dressed so, we always say 
she hasn’t washed her ears this morning ! ” 

** Pigs ! ” said Chum, laughing. “ It’s your own 
unclean minds. Ally, isn’t the waiter the image of 
Ah Sin ! ” 

Yes, says his name’s Chun Low, or some such 
variation — but it doesn’t matter. Have some 
chicken. Chum — I’m afraid it’s not up to much.” 

I never quarrel with my food,” said Chum con- 
tentedly, attacking the tough fowl. 

The coffee-room at the Natale was like a paro- 
chial hall, or an arcade at some exhibition, both on 
account of its size and its bareness. It was an im- 
mense place, built out from the rest of the bungalow 
as if to allow of more room, though evidently in no 
hope of custom, for there were but five small tables 
in all its desert space. These were spread with 
coarse cloths and such table cutlery as should suf- 
fice to take away a diner’s appetite. Mrs. Lewin 
made a face at her dingy pewter, and amused her- 
self with looking round the walls for distraction. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


9 


There was nothing to be seen but some dilapidated 
fans and a square of coloured muslin on a stick 
which bore some far-off resemblance to a flag. 
Outside the three or four long, doors the day was 
still lingering among the creepers and shrubs on the 
stoep, for green things seemed to flourish there in 
tubs, and three dirty basket-chairs converted the 
place into a popular lounge. It was infinitely for- 
lorn. Chum looked away again, towards the waiter 
this time, and observed that he was trying to attract 
Ally’s attention, which was just then riveted upon 
the fowl’s iron joints. 

Ally,” she said, “ I think Ah Sin wants to tell 
you something — he’s either going to have a fit, or 
it’s Anglo-Saxon attitudes ! ” 

Lewin turned round quickly, to find that the 
Chinese waiter had come to his elbow, evidently 
with some more important news than the next 
course of a bad dinner. The guests at his table 
were lunatics to the mind of the Chinaman, who 
could not use his name of Chung Low, but must 
needs call him by some one else’s. Furthermore 
they joked and laughed like children, and made 
comments on their surroundings and on himself 
which were nonsense, and which should not alter a 
line of his outward imperturbability. 

“ What is it ? ” said Lewin impatiently. 

“ One piecey man he come see you ! ” said Chung 
Low without a crease of expression in his yellow 
face. 

The corners of Chum’s mouth lifted deliciously. 
Ally dared not meet her eyes across the table. 

“ Which piece of him. Ah Sin ? ” she said, leaning 
her chin in her hands and looking gravely at the 
Chinaman. 

“ Chum ! ” said Ally warningly, under his breath. 
Indeed he was choked with laughter. “ Er — you 


10 


THE RAT-TRAP 


can show him in, boy I ” he added, with a rather 
larger manner than usual to impress the Celestial, 
and Ally was never very condensed. “ I expect it’s 
one of the fellows from barracks come down to see 
if he can do anything,” he added vaguely to his 
wife. “ People are generally so deuced friendly in 
a station like this that it becomes a bore. Might 
have left us to our dinner, anyhow, such as it is. 
Still we can’t say no — can we ? ” 

“ Of course not. Besides, I want to see if he is 
whole ! ” said the irrepressible Chum. “ Here 
comes Ah Sin — bowing before a young man who 
looks all teeth ! ” (Chum could see the advance 
along the stoep of the hotel, to which Ally had his 
back.) “ Now he is making Anglo-Saxon attitudes 
before him. Oh, Ally, do get up and meet him 
first — I know Pm going to laugh ! . . . Weill'* 
The last exclamation was due to the fact that 
Ally had risen at her desire, but no sooner did he 
see his visitor than he made a stride forward to 
meet him, and the visitor being equally impetuous 
the next few seconds presented a confused babel of 
greeting to Mrs. Lewin’s amazed eyes and ears. 

“ Hulloa, Bristles I ” 

“ Why, it’s old Ally Sloper!” 

“What luck blew you here? You’re not with 
the regiment — the Wessex ? ” 

“Yes I am. Changed from the Rutlandshire 
after the African show. Not seen you but once 
since Sandhurst, Ally — are you our new A. D. C. to 
Gregory’s Powder ? ” 

“ Yes, worse luck ! This is a nice beginning — no 
quarters, and obliged to bring my wife to this sort 
of shanty ! Oh, Chum — this is an old pal who 
was at Sandhurst with me. Captain Nugent — Mrs. 
Lewin.” 

One of Ally’s most salient characteristics was 


THE RAT-TRAP 


II 


that he could use slang and remain a gentleman. 
As she shook hands with his friend Mrs. Lewin in- 
wardly commented upon the fact that the same in- 
dulgence would convert Captain Nugent into a 
coster. He stared at her with eyes which were 
burnt by much foreign service, and seemed to ap- 
prove of the survey. 

“ I heard that a Captain Lewin was coming, but 
never thought it was you,” he explained. “ Fact 
is, I came down to see if you were too tired to 
come to the Gunnery, to-night — there’s a scratch 
dance on, and, of course, as we didn’t expect 
you till to-morrow, we couldn’t send you an invita- 
tion.” 

“ What’s the show ? ” said Ally lazily, as he lit a 
cigarette. “ You fellows ? ” 

“ No, the town cricket team. We had a match 
this week, and they got up this hop as a finish. 
It’s only a small thing, so you might waive cere- 
mony and come ! ” He looked at Mrs. Lewin’s 
promising young figure as a man might a horse he 
means to back. 

“ Are you too tired. Chum ? ” Ally said doubt- 
fully. 

“ I am never too tired to dance,” said Mrs. Lewin 
with refreshing cordiality. Wait till I get into 
something less dinnery. I was afraid to before, 
because it wouldn’t get dark and let us have 
candles. There is nothing so disreputable as dining 
by daylight — it makes one feel decolletee in the 
highest gown.” 

Both men laughed as she vanished through one 
of the endless doorways. Then there was a silence 
of some seconds while the cigarette smoke rose in 
meditative threads. The man who thinks while he 
smokes draws slowly, but if he is actively employed 
he produces little woolly clouds. 


12 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“You’re married too, aren’t you?” said Ally, 
looking across the table. 

“ Yes ; left the missus at home. She isn’t strong 
enough for this place.” Captain Nugent’s burnt 
young eyes looked away from his friend as he 
spoke. 

“ Any family ? ” 

“ One,” said Nugent, knocking the ash on to the 
bare boards of the floor to the inconvenience of the 
ants who lived there. “ It’s a tom ! ” he added 
thoughtfully. 

Another pause. 

“ D’you remember, we both vowed we’d marry 
widows rather than a raw girl ? ” said Ally in 
reminiscence. “By Jove! How I wished I 
had.” 

“ It’s cornery at first. My wife told me what 
struck her most was that I came in to speak to her 
in my shirt-sleeves, and without thinking took up 
one of her brushes and brushed my hair. She 
thought, ‘ What cheek ! ’ ” 

“ Well, there’s one thing that stumps me now,” 
said Ally. 

“ I know what you're going to say — she buttons 
her gowns from right to left.” 

“ You’ve seen it too? Why the devil do they? 
All our clothes go from left to right. I believe it’s 
that that makes women always look at a thing hind- 
side before — their very point of view grows topsy- 
turvy.” 

“ Ally ! ” came Mrs. Lewin’s voice from the door- 
way. “ Come and change your coat — you can’t 
dance in a jacket. Captain Nugent, how are we to 
get there ? ” 

Both men rose rather guiltily. “ I am afraid 
you 11 have to ride, Mrs. Lewin?” Nugent said. 
“ Ponies, y’know. Every one does here, Can you 


THE RAT-TRAP 


13 


turn up your skirt ? Fd get you a buggy, but there 
are only three in Port Victoria, and they are all 
hired for to-night.” 

Elementary, but exciting,” said Chum calmly. 
“ Go and get me a pony, that’s all, and Fll show 
you.” 

She was as good as her word when the ponies 
came round ; they were rats of things, and the new 
lady’s saddle which Mrs. Lewin had brought out 
looked astonishingly big on the animal assigned 
her. But she tucked up her silk skirts as if to the 
manner born, and the procession clattered off from 
the front of the hotel, audienced by half-a-dozen 
Chinese, loafers of three dusky races — for Key 
Island has a mixed population — and some lean 
hen. The darkness had come at last, but out of 
the irregular wooden houses shone the electric light 
with the bizarre effect it always produces in such 
elementary places. The ponies shambled along 
at a miniature canter, and Leoline gripped the 
pommel by habit with a dreamy remembrance that 
some time since she had set a thoroughbred across 
the finest hunting country in England. Such 
things seemed to belong to another life, with the 
smell of eucalyptus and moonflowers coming into 
her nostrils on a warm, wet breeze, and the glimpses 
of Port Victoria by electric flashes. They rocked 
down the main street, and for an instant the quay 
was on their left before they turned up-hill to their 
destination; again she saw the grouped ravenala 
palms, the huge wharves, the bay, and the grim 
Gates at the harbour mouth, black sentinels against 
the darkening sky. Then Captain Nugent steered 
to the left, along a bad road where anything but a 
Key’land pony would have stumbled, and suddenly 
they emerged into the most wonderful avenue of 
cocoanut palms, with soft sand underfoot, and as if 


14 THE RAT-TRAP 

by common consent the up-hill canter changed to 
a hard gallop. 

“Look out!” Nugent called, pulling in beside 
Mrs. Lewin. “This is Mitsinjovy Straight, the 
only bit of flat land round about. They always 
gallop here ; mind I ” 

It was difficult to talk going at that pace, the 
wind buffeting them with such violence. Mrs. 
Lewin looked along the aisle of straight stems, 
each with its crown-tuft far overhead, and said, “ I 
like it ! ” It seemed to her the most characteristic 
spot in all the island, from first to last — that 
wonderful avenue of cocoanuts where the ponies 
were so glad to gallop ! — and she was half regretful 
when they pulled up before an old sugar factoiy 
beyond the palms, a white, hoary-looking building, 
evidently converted from the sugar industiy to 
other uses now-a-days. 

“ This is the Gunnery,” Captain Nugent ex- 
plained. “ It’s the Gunners’ mess uiml their 
quarters are finished. The men will take your 
pony, Mrs. Lewin.” 

Chum found the dressing-room full of women, 
lingering to gossip with the assurance of already 
filled programmes. Powder-puffs were going vigor- 
ously, and the place was stuffy with wraps. She 
tossed her cloak to an attendant, and rejoined her 
escort, who awaited her at the ballroom door. 
Nothing of the old sugar works remained, only the 
shell of the barn-like building served now as a 
shelter in which the gentlemen of the Royal 
Artillery could dine. 

It was as Nugqnt had said, a scratch dance, and 
the Gunnery had not even been decorated, but 
the floor was unexpectedly good, and the Wessex 
had arranged a band of a sort on a rough staging. 
Below this impromptu dais stood several people at 


THE RAT-TRAP 


15 


whom Mrs. Lewin looked at once, with an instinct 
for those of mark. There was a tall man with 
thick silver hair, and a stout woman in black, a 
jovial-looking parson, and another man with his 
back to her, of whom she could not judge. 
Nugent’s eyes followed hers. 

“ Those are the Seats of the Mighty there,” he 
said. “ The parson is Archie Lysle, our chaplain 
(best fellow goin’ b ; the lady’s Mrs. White, and 
the grey-haired Johnnie is her husband — he’s 
Attorney -General.” 

“ Who’s the other man ? ” Ally asked. 

“ Halton, the Commissioner. Gregory’s Powder 
half promised to turn up, but he went off to the 
Tsara Valley yesterday morning, and I don’t expect 
he is back. Halton is probably representing Gov- 
ernment House.” 

“ I can’t understand this place,” said Chum, 
knitting her brows. “ When the Government took 
over ifty Island from the British African Island 
Company ” 

Limited ! ” Ally put in significantly. 

Limited, — why did they send out an Adminis- 
trator and a Commissioner to enquire into the 
riots ? Surely the man who takes the responsibility 
should be the one to find out what is wrong ? ” 

“ Well, you see, Halton’s the drag on the wheel, 
and Gregory’s the wheel itself. Gregory’s a man 
who is always sent into a tight place, but unless 
they brigade him with a drag, he’d make it an 
absolute monarchy — he’s a born slave ruler. So 
they put Halton in to enquire, and Gregory to act 
on the enquiry. See ? ” 

“ Oh ! ” Chum’s whole thought was concentrated 
into the word. “ And does that succeed ? ” 

“ Don't much know — and it don’t matter either 
in such a beastly little corner as this. Can’t think 


i6 


THE RAT-TRAP 


why we bother about the place at all. Let France 
have it.” 

“ But we want it for a coaling station, don’t we ; 
and it’s the key of the Mozambique Channel ! ” 

“ You’re thinking of the name — but Key ’land 
takes its name as much from its shape as anything, 
or so they say. Besides, who cares about the 
Mozambique Channel? I don’t know what Gov- 
ernment is up to, of course — don’t mind either, so 
long as I get out of this pretty quick. We’ve been 
here six months, and we're all dead nuts on getting 
away. May I have some dances, Mrs. Lewin ? ” 
His tone had brightened. 

Chum looked at him curiously as he wrote his 
name on her programme, and in her own mind 
contrasted him with Ally, and found him vastly 
inferior. He could not even take an intelligent 
interest in his surroundings, and she attributed it 
to a certain curious formation in the back of his 
head. It was flattened on the top, but curved out 
from the neck too much to Mrs. Lewin’s critical 
inspection. Ally, with a superior skull, would of 
course be more intelligent ; but she did not realise 
that she intended him to be so by her own motive 
power. 

“ Would you like to know Halton ? He’s a very 
decent chap,” Bristow Nugent said simply. This 
is quite an unofficial affair, y’know. No need for 
ceremony. I’ll bring him over.” 

He swung in and out of the thickening crowd 
towards the band, but the dancing had begun, and 
Mrs. Lewin’s programme had filled with the 
men she had known on the troop-ship, and others 
who followed in their wake. The evening was 
half over before Captain Nugent fulfilled his 
promise and brought the Commissioner up to her. 

He was a very quiet man in appearance, with 


THE RAT-TRAP 


17 


that instinctive colouring which in an Englishman 
is always called fair, but his eyes were a dark-brown, 
rather opaque, and had a trick of half closing while 
he talked. He looked about forty, and the lines of 
his clean-shaven face appealed to Chum as suggest- 
ing humour. 

“ I suppose you have not had time to report 
yourselves yet,” he said quizzically ; “ and as a fact 
you are not due until to-morrow, so to-night’s ap- 
pearance must be regarded as a kind of provision 
of good things.” 

“ There is no one to report oneself to, is there ? 
I hear that the Administrator is not in Port 
Victoria.” 

“ He is standing behind you — not a dozen yards 
away,” said Halton quietly. “ If you turn round 
as though suddenly struck by the attractiveness of 
the band, you will be able to look at him at your 
leisure.” 

Their eyes met, and they both laughed, while 
Mrs. Lewin did as suggested. There was no mis- 
taking the Administrator, because he happened to 
be the only man near, and was walking towards 
them with Mrs. White, the Attorney-General’s wife. 
Evelyn Gregory was peculiar rather than attractive, 
but more emphatic than either. He was consider- 
ably taller than most men present, and was of that 
spare build which made his dress suit look as if it 
hung over a clothes-horse. 

“ He seems as if he were only on a bowing ac- 
quaintance with his clothes, and was afraid of tak- 
ing liberties with them ! ” was Mrs. Lewin’s com- 
ment to herself. “ Evening dress appears more in- 
appropriate to him than to any man I ever saw. 
Not that he is awkward either — but he looks too 
tremendous for it ! ” 

The Administrator was still advancing, and re- 


i8 


THE RAT-TRAP 


vealed a long hatchet-shaped face, with an unusual 
overhanging width at the temples. His hair was 
reddish and cropped closely, and his features were 
cast in a rather savage mould, the mouth hidden 
by a huge moustache. His eyes were his most 
distinguishing feature, being nearly lidless and 
seeming to fill the whole socket, the effect being 
that of extreme far sight and almost cruel keenness. 
Mrs. Lewin was the more struck by their expression 
in contrast to the Commissioner’s, but she could not 
see their colour, for he was looking straight before 
him, and speaking in what she at first thought was 
an intentional undertone to Mrs. White. 

“ I don’t think you know Mrs. Lewin ? ” said 
that lady, who had been talking to Chum earlier 
in the evening, and now paused near her. “ Mr. 
Gregory ! ” 

As Chum bowed she was conscious that the Ad- 
ministrator looked at her, classified her in his own 
mind, and dropped the very thought of her. He 
lingered for a minute, expressing his regret that they 
should have been forced to go to the hotel, but he 
hoped their bungalow would be at their disposal to- 
morrow, and Mrs. Lewin discovered that it was his 
custom to speak in a rapid undertone like a forceful 
whisper. The curiously concentrated effect of this 
was uncanny. His words came below his breath, 
but not one of them was lost. When he had 
passed on, she turned to Mr. Halton with relief, to 
find him regarding her in his turn. 

I cannot think how you do it ! ” he said 
promptly. 

“ Do what ? ” said Chum, as they ensconced 
themselves on two chairs in a corner, as if by tacit 
consent. She made a furtive snatch at her mental 
attitude as she spoke, for, to tell the truth, she had 
been making use of that good gift of nature, her 


THE RAT-TRAP 


19 


eyes. Even in this brief few minutes she had found 
Mr. Halton responsive. 

“ You come here,” said the Commissioner 
thoughtfully, “ in a perfectly fresh and smiling 
gown. Yet you arrived this afternoon, and must 
have untrunked it, as you could not have worn it 
for landing.” He glanced at her so daintily as to be 
free of offence ; the pretty white shoulders were in- 
nocent of sleeve, and the shoulder-strap was gener- 
ous, and hardly marred them. “ I usually know the 
packed look of a new arrival, but you have upset 
my calculations.” 

“ I am sitting on the creases,” said Mrs. Lewin 
amicably. “ They are all in my tail ! By the way, 
Mr. Halton, are all the servants here Chinamen ? ” 
No ; only at the hotel, and one or two houses 
which believe in them. They are not very good 
servants, though they compare favourably with 
most of the ruffians who inhabit Key Island. The 
fact is that no good Chinaman leaves China — the 
best will hardly go out of their own districts.” 

“ What am I to do for servants, then ? ” 

“ I should advise your having Arabs. You begin 
to think that this is a tower of Babel, I see ; but 
the fact is, we get Arabs from the Comoros, as well 
as Chinese labour, like the Mauritius, and unless 
you can pick and choose, they are easier to manage. 
You can have a choice of evils, of course. There is 
the African negro, who is deceitful and desperately 
wicked. Creole and half-caste (but they won’t 
work), and even some Malagasy. Would you like 
a brace of Arabs to begin with ? ” 

“ Thank you,” laughed Chum. “ I suppose we 
shall begin housekeeping to-morrow, and I tremble 
when I think of my husband’s sufferings during my 
novitiate.” 

Turn him over to the club if he dares to grum- 


20 


THE RAT-TRAP 


ble ; that will sober him. I will send you Abdallah 
and Hafez, if I may. You will find them two very 
average idiots. Make Hafez your cook and Ab- 
dallah your butler, and they will find you the rest 
of your household.” 

‘‘You are much better than a registry office! 
But I feel I’m taking liberties with the Govern- 
ment.” 

“ We are terribly unofficial in Key'land I ” said 
the Commissioner, with a little grimace. “ But a 
week here will tell you more of the place than any 
secrets I could give away. The fact is that the 
Home Authorities are spring-cleaning, and we are 
living on the stairs and in the passages mean- 
while, after the manner of householders in such 
circumstances.” 

Mrs. Lewin had absorbed a fair amount of infor- 
mation even when she returned to the hotel that 
night with her husband. It was their custom to 
become confidential after a tour among strangers, 
and to exchange experiences ; but they took differ- 
ent standpoints. 

“ I saw you talking to a red-haired woman,” said 
Chum. “ What was she like ? ” 

“ Oh, rather nice. She knows the Tavistocks — 
Indian people, you know. I was at the Pindi with 
them.” Ally’s interest in people was usually 
founded on mutual acquaintances. 

“ I thought she looked Army, herself. Who is 
she ? ” 

“ A Mrs. Churton. Her husband is senior Major 
of the Wessex and O.C.T. here. She is rather a 
smart woman, I thought.” This was Ally’s 
praise. 

“ But does she put all her goods in the shop 
windows, so to speak? There are people like 
that.” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


21 


“Well, her hair was all right, wasn’t it? And 
she knows every one here.” 

“ Ah ! ” said Chum thoughtfully, letting down the 
masses of her own irreclaimable hair, which objected 
to being smart either in colour or fashion. “ Then 
I hope she will come to call soon.” 

“ How did you get on ? And what did you think 
of Bristles ? ” 

“ I don’t think of Bristles. But on the whole I 
didn’t do badly. I was offered ten ponies to ride, 
three men are coming to call on me with their wives 
(not only sending their wives to call — it’s a broader 
compliment), and the Commissioner is selecting all 
the rogues and vagabonds in the island for my 
servants ! ” 

“ The Commissioner ! I thought it was the Ad- 
ministrator you were going to annex.” 

“ I am feeling round at present. If I see that he 
is the right man to advance our fortunes. Ally, 
nothing can save him ! ” 

“ I am afraid you had better keep to Halton. I 
heard all round that Gregory’s Powder is a stiff dose. 
Lysle — that chaplain fellow — tells me that every 
woman out here has had a shot at him, and never 
made more than a fleeting impression.” 

“ If he sets up as a woman-hater, he is a foregone 
conclusion,” said Chum scornfully. “ He seemed 
on excellent terms with that stout woman, Mrs. 
White, though.” 

“ He is on excellent terms with them all, and 
with no one in particular. He is absorbed in his 
work wherever it is, they say, and the worst of it is 
he’s a slave driver. I’m going to have a lovely 
time of it ! ” 

He looked so really rueful and impressed that 
Chum opened her charming eyes with a little 
laugh. 


22 


THE RAT-TRAP 


Why, Ally,” she said, you are all making a lit- 
tle tin god of him, — and I can’t think why ! ” 

“ He is the Administrator of Key Island, and a 
hard nut to crack. Perhaps that is why.” 

My dear fellow, he is — only a man ! ” 


CHAPTER II 


« A woman and a cheny are painted to their own harm.” — . 
English Proverb. 

To understand the overwhelming military flavour 
in the society of Key Island, it must be remem- 
bered that Port Victoria is girdled with the garri- 
son, and that the garrison is stationary, whereas the 
cruisers only put in to coal, and at the best stay 
three weeks on one excuse or another. The naval 
flavour, therefore, is general, but indistinct ; whereas 
one cannot get away from the smell of khaki, go 
where one will. On the right, as one enters the 
harbour, is Teraka, the Gate of Sunrise, and behind 
this, though unconnected with it, rises Maitso Hill 
with its solid quarters for troops ; on the left Tsofotra, 
or the Sunset Gate, is flanked in the same way by 
the lower slopes of Mitsinjovy. When the Lewins 
arrived in Key Island Maitso was occupied by the 
Wessex, and the Gunners were in hurricane huts at 
Mitsinjovy, pending the completion of their barracks, 
which were to accommodate yet more batteries as 
soon as finished ; add to this the usual percentage 
of A.S.C., R.A.M.C., and A.P.D., and the result is 
that from nine to twelve, when the men go out of 
uniform. Port Victoria is nothing but a parade 
ground, and every man at afternoon tennis looks as 
if he missed a stripe down his trousers. There are 
civilians, of course (Leoline Lewin counted three 

23 


24 


THE RAT-TRAP 


that she knew after a residence of as many weeks), 
but they are not enough to leaven the lump, and so 
the social world remains Official and Military, and 
the aristocracy of the place are always those who 
are most ferociously Army. Mrs. Lewin had two 
great advantages, when she was introduced to the 
station, over most of the young married women 
who fought a mental battle for their rights before 
they established themselves in the uppermost seats 
of the synagogue — Captain Lewin belonged to a 
very much smarter regiment than either the Wessex 
or the Artillery hen at Port Victoria ; and also, he 
was not attached to the garrison. Therefore Chum 
started with an insured position that could not be 
torn from her, and yet rivalled no other lady’s. In- 
cidentally, she was also much better looking than 
any other woman in the island, and she knew how 
to put on her clothes, which is a gift quite apart 
from possessing the garments themselves, or even 
the taste to choose them. When they had talked 
her over at the club, from the ripples of her pretty 
hair to her openwork stockings and American 
shoes, the married men did a shrewd thing, and 
waited for their wives to mention her first, while the 
unmarried went to call without waiting for Sunday 
— which is a great compliment, because by the law 
of Port Victoria Sunday is the day set aside for vis- 
iting, it not being etiquette to play polo or dance. 

The Alaric Lewins took their married life as a 
huge joke, a point of view which speedily commu- 
nicated itself to Key Island, who proceeded to laugh 
with them over the situation. They had been 
brought up together, Mrs. Lewin’s father having 
been Alaric’s guardian, and an admiration of Ally 
had been amongst the rudiments of Chum’s educa- 
tion. At intervals Alaric had disappeared out of 
her life to Harrow, and Sandhurst, and India, always 


THE RAT-TRAP 


25 


to reappear a good deal handsomer and better man- 
nered and more travelled. His view of life was 
necessarily larger than her own by forced experi- 
ence ; but the girl, left at home, knew more deeply 
by theory than the man by practice. At twenty- 
six a woman who thin]":s is in a very dangerous po- 
sition if she has had no actual experience to reduce 
her ideas of life to the level of reality. But 
Leoline looked innocent enough of anything out 
of the common, when seen against the background 
of her home. Captain Lewin was much influenced 
by surroundings ; he saw a solid position in the 
county, irreproachable frocks, popularity with men 
and women alike, and a coveted possession by oth- 
ers of his kind, while the unimportant item of a 
girl’s individuality, which was the centrepiece of all 
this, he took for granted. Leoline, the victim of 
her own theories, found the relations between them 
hardly altered after the clergyman of the parish, 
who had hitherto behaved like a gentleman, said 
very rude things to her from the altar rails, for which 
he had scriptural authority. She congratulated her- 
self that she was still Ally’s “ Chum,” and made 
their interests one with a touch of comradeship in 
the wifehood. Her knowledge of the man she had 
married consisted in the fact that he was nearly six 
feet in height and well built, that he had a well- 
shaped dark head, and a handsome face, that he had 
always had good manners and appearance, and that 
they were excellent companions. Marriage to Chum, 
meant a certain amount of mutual toleration and 
avoidance of friction, whereby she called it a suc- 
cess. It seemed to her that she and Ally had done 
the same thing from their nursery days ; they must 
certainly have learned all of each other that there 
was to learn by now. But in an indefinite future 
she believed that he was to do great things, because 


26 


THE RAT-TRAP 


she could not imagine herself the wife of a man who 
was a failure. 

A week in Key Island revealed the inner work- 
ings of its life, as Halton had said it would, but the 
Lewins still knew different sides of it. Alaric’s 
duties tied him to Government House as he had 
predicted, but he escaped to play tennis and to ride 
and bathe after the manner of his kind. There was 
an heroic effort at a polo ground too, but things 
being on an eternal slant in the island, the game 
had to be played on a gentle slope. Gentlemen of 
the home clubs, who swear at a daisy tuft, think of 
the pathos of this, and see how exiled brothers can 
follow the sport abroad ! Leoline, by the grace of 
Hafez and Abdullah, was free early in the day, but 
squandered her liberty in reducing her house to 
order. She did not care to ride out to tennis much 
before the hour when her husband could arrive there 
also, and it even sometimes happened that she would 
for preference go for a gallop through the cocoanuts 
up and down Mitsinjovy Straight, so that he had 
got home and changed, and was at their mutual 
destination before her. This happened one day 
about a week after their arrival ; Mrs. Lewin had 
ordered her pony for four o’clock, but the day 
clouded over, and the sky over Maitso was so 
threatening that she gave up her gallop and half 
hesitated about going to the further garrison. As, 
however, tennis was on at Mrs. Churton’s this after- 
noon, and as Ally liked Mrs. Churton, she decided 
to ride up to Maitso, anyhow, and cantered soberly 
away, past the gates of Government House, and, 
leaving Port Victoria to the right, began to climb 
the hill. 

It was a steep climb, and the pony sobered at 
once to a walk. No Key’land pony can trot — ■ 
either he walks or he canters, and even that he does 


THE RAT-TRAP 


27 


in a manner peculiarly his own, using three of his 
legs to the distinct saving of the fourth. As Lis- 
carton dug his toes into the dust and hitched his 
lean quarters upwards, Mrs. Lewin turned in the 
saddle and looked down at the view, which was 
gaining an indefinite fascination for her — the town, 
the harbour, and the gates. The two cone-shaped 
rocks had a threatening appearance to-day, with the 
low loose clouds nearly touching their crests, and 
there was a sullen light upon everything. Even 
the sun-soaked green of the hills cuddled round 
Port Victoria were draped with passing veils of rain 
that were being blown over them and down towards 
the town. It was not as yet wet at Maitso, though 
it had been threatening all day, and the Lewins' 
bungalow, being on a level with Government House, 
had also escaped with an angry shower. 

Shall we have a storm, boy ? ” said Chum, as 
she rode into the Churtons’ yard and delivered her 
pony to a loafing servant. The groom nodded, and 
murmured an assent in Arabic or Malagasy — she 
had not yet learned to know which — but with so 
obvious a disbelief in the weather that she hastened 
her steps into the house in consequence. He was 
right, for the first large drops splashed on to the 
roof of the stoep, even as the butler bowed her into 
the drawing-room through one of its many doors ; 
and the clouds darkened the day so that the care- 
fully shaded room was really dusky after the outside 
world. 

Mrs. Churton happened to be crossing the room, 
and greeted Mrs. Lewin on the way. She was of 
a type that wears the regimental badge as a waist- 
buckle, and seems proud of a weather-beaten skin 
as proof that she has followed the drum through 
miny climates. Chum glanced at the hair that 
Ally had said was “ All right,” and saw that Diana 


28 


THE RAT-TRAP 


Churton had tightened a coiffeur in the Queen into 
a form entirely unbecoming to her face. Her 
instinct could not approve, but her judgment 
meekly followed Ally’s. 

There were many people crowded into the little 
room who would have spread themselves out com- 
fortably upon the tennis courts, but thus condensed 
seemed to Chum too complicated to be greeted in 
detail. So she remained where she had drifted, near 
an open window, and watched the storm. It had 
begun to rain, as it always does there, with half-a- 
dozen great drops, like the first tears of a breaking 
grief, and then as if a window opened in heaven 
and an angry God threatened to drown the earth a 
second time. For some minutes it was impossible 
to hear anything but the shouting of the rain as it 
drove past ; but after a few minutes it softened to a 
steady hissing whisper, and the conversation in the 
room behind her caught Mrs. Lewin’s idle attention. 
She wondered what was absorbing the party, and 
turned to hear. Mrs. Churton had had a large 
volume in her hands when she spoke to her latest 
guest, which she promptly deposited upon Ally’s 
knee — Chum had recognised his flat shoulders and 
oval dark head, though his back was towards her 
— and a minute later she gained the key to the 
mystery. 

“ My husband always takes about two hundred 
pounds worth with him for exchange,” Mrs. Chur- 
ton was saying. “ There’s the variation, Captain 
Lewin — see the difference between DIE I and II?” 

“ Oh, I’ve got this,” Ally’s voice chimed in. 
“ DIE II has a clean engraved cut under the eye, 
hasn’t it ? But you’ve beaten me in shades.” 

“ I can get ten pounds for that one penny on five 
stilling dull rose Barbadoes of mine ! ” broke in an- 
other voice. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


29 


You’re a specialist, aren’t you, Mr. Lysle ? ” 
Yes, I only take the Portuguese colonies. A 
collector really has no time for more than one cor- 
ner of the world, if he does it seriously.” 

Mrs. Churton laughed rather loudly. I’m not 
serious enough to confine myself to one country. 
I take anything that comes in my way — the more 
valuable the better. Bute says he wouldn’t trust 
me with his own common duplicates.” 

“ Stamps ! ” said Chum blankly, under her breath. 
It was so long since she had helped to arrange 
those little coloured squares of paper in a fancy 
album with Ally, that she had not realised that the 
usual boy’s hobby had grown up into Philately — a 
fearsome disease that ravages both Services all the 
world over. Not being a “ collector ” herself, she 
stood by in amazed amusement while the jargon of 
the cult rang across the room, until she became 
aware that Mr. Halton had appeared at her side, 
without her having known him to be in the room. 

“ Disgusting weather, isn’t it ? ” he said, as they 
shook hands. “ For those who want to play tennis. 
I am afraid the crops want water so badly that, as a 
government official, I must rejoice, however.” 

“ Is rain wanted ? ” said Mrs. Lewin, with inter- 
est. “ What for ? The cane ? I wish you would 
talk about Key Island a little, Mr. Halton ! ” 

Why ? ” 

“ Because it interests me. I have been trying to 
pump my husband for information all the week, but 
he is an unsatisfactory person, and won’t explain 
things to me. When one understands a thing one- 
self, it is difficult to realise the ignorance of other 
people.” 

The Commissioner looked at her beneath his 
drooping eyelids, and there was some speculation in 
his glance. 


30 


THE RAT-TRAP 


» Perhaps he is like most Key’landers, and feels 
no interest in the island himself?” he remarked 
drily. “ Most of the victims whom Government 
has chained here for three years think of nothing 
those three years but getting away ! ” 

“ Yes, I know they do ; but it seems rather silly, 
don’t you think ? Why should people always live 
in the future, or the past, when it is really the 
present that matters ? As I am in Key Island, I 
have a deep interest in Key Island — I belong to 
her, and every move of the Government makes me 
long to know their plans still more ! ” 

“ You should talk to the Administrator,” said 
Halton, laughing. He is the only man likely to 
encourage you. I must confess I have some 
sympathy with the people who hate this place, 
though I can’t share Gregory’s enthusiasms.” 

“Ah, but you are only a passing compliment 
from the Colonial Office, are you not? and we can- 
not expect to keep you ! Major Churton told me 
yesterday that they would hardly spare you from 
more important places much longer. But why do 
you hate Key ’land ? ” 

Halton looked out of the window at the clearing 
sky. The rain had ceased as suddenly as it had 
begun, and overhead was the pure deep blue that 
Mrs. Lewin was beginning to associate with the place. 

“ It’s a rat-trap ! ” said the Commissioner, glanc- 
ing up into the hollow heavens. “ One of the rat- 
traps that connect all the British Empire. And 
already the rats are beginning to run round and 
round and find no way of escape.” 

But the words held no present meaning for 
Chum’s ears. She was listening half-idly to the 
scraps of conversation in the room behind her. 

“ I have got the Provincial issue for St. Thomas 
when they surcharged the two cents on three cent 


THE RAT-TRAP 


31 

stamps until the mail could get in with more of the 
current issue ! ” 

“ By Jove ! that’s ten shillings in the catalogue at 
least.” 

“ Yes, old man, but it isn’t in the market, as 
there's no price quoted for it ! ” 

Then Ally laughed, and Chum smiled in sympa- 
thy. Ally’s sense of humour was easily tickled, 
and his laugh was infectious, Mrs. Churton’s me- 
tallic voice rang above the babel. 

“ Well, anyhow he had Zanzibar complete, and 
they say it’s worth a thousand ! ” 

No, he hadn’t — he couldn’t get the one rupee 
unused slate, small second, after all.” 

** The only things to go for now-a-days are new 
issues — all the old ones are too rare.” 

“ What’s that Turk’s Island twopence halfpenny 
on penny dull red, that Mrs. Ritchie Stern had from 
Captain Tullock ? ” 

“ Oh, a beauty ! I offered her an old Pacific 
Steam Navigation stamp for it, but she wouldn’t 
exchange.” 

“ Nonsense ! It’ll be as common as Black Eng- 
lish in a little while.” 

“ Isn’t that a lovely set — those Venezuelans ! 
And do you notice that the over-print is different 
in just one out of the whole sheet? I wrote to the 
paper about it, and they took no notice. I’m posi- 
tive there’s a variation.” 

Five heads were eagerly bent over a square half 
inch of printed paper, while a chorus of indistin- 
guishable argument arose that made Mrs. Lewin 
laugh out loud. 

“ I never yet met any one closely connected with 
the Navy or Army who did not possess a collection 
of stamps worth at least a thousand pounds ! ” re- 
marked Halton drily, following her glance. 


32 


THE RAT-TRAP 


And did they ever realise the thousand 
pounds ? ” 

Oh no, not personally. You heard their in- 
genuous remarks about catalogues and market 
prices ! But then they never want to sell — person- 
ally. They know some one, however, who did so. 
It is generally Browne who had the Taradiddle on 
the El Dorado Station, unless it is Smyth of the 
1 , 000 ! ” 

“ I know so many men in that regiment ! ” said 
Chum sweetly, “ and they are all such nice fellows, 
too ! The Duke of Humbug’s Own, isn’t it? ” 

“ Yes ; and the regimental motto is, ^ When you 
tell a lie, tell a good one ! ’ — the badge, a chimera 
seen in a mirage ! ” 

They had no time to laugh, because Mrs. 
Churton’s voice was heard across the room, ear- 
nestly expostulating with Ally. 

The colours on the red Brazilian unpaid letter- 
stamp won’t stand steaming. You had better try 
wet blotting paper.” 

Oh, come outside ! ” said Halton impatiently, 
pushing open the shuttered window-frame, and 
holding out his hand to help his companion over 
the step. Mrs. Lewin followed him down the stoep 
and into a narrow path lightly flanked by logwood. 
Three ravenala palms stood sentinel outside the 
quarters of the O.C.T., their split fans looking like 
raised hands to her imagination. The ravenala is 
the Traveller’s Tree,” and is tapped for water by 
enterprising tourists ; but it is too common in 
Key’land to excite the inhabitants, who look upon 
it as any other palm. To Mrs. Lewin it had be- 
come somehow symbolic of the place, and she 
liked its solemn hands outspread above her head, 
and regretted that there did not happen to be a 
single specimen at the bungalow. Besides the 


THE RAT-TRAP 


33 


ravenalas and the logwood, the Churtons’ quarters 
were singularly treeless, but they owned one of the 
three tennis courts in Port Victoria. Maitso and 
Mitsinjovy are not remarkable for flat spaces of 
ground, and the Churtons were esteemed fortunate. 
All the houses on Maitso Hill had been apportioned 
to married officers when the troops were first quar- 
tered there, and as the paths zigzagged up and 
down the steep incline, each sharp curve would 
reveal a small bungalow, until the long line of 
actual barracks crowned the crest. PTom a dis- 
tance it looked as if one house were hung above 
another, tier on tier in the green, but a nearer ac- 
quaintance proved the garrison more rugged than 
picturesque. At Mitsinjovy the officers’ quarters, 
being new and specially built for them, were of a 
more regular type, and proportionately hideous ; 
but Maitso had been a favourite residence to the old 
planters, and when given over to the Wessex, they 
counted themselves luckier than the Gunners. 
Halton and Mrs. Lewin sauntered as far as the ten- 
nis courts, and there paused, looking down on the 
best view of Port Victoria and the bay that Key 
Island affords, while they talked in desultory fashion. 

“So you are interested in Key’land !” said the 
Commissioner meditatively. “ Have you seen any- 
thing of the island yet ? ” 

“ Nothing but Port Victoria — and the docks ! ” 
said Mrs. Lewin, with a laughing glance at the 
forests of masts far off in the bay. 

“ I am glad you give the Government hobby its 
chance — but you should have said the Docks, the 
Harbour, the Coaling V^ar>^s, and — Port Victoria ! 
That is the correct order. ,We are merely here on 
sufferance, as Governmeht House bears witness ! 
Would you like me to take you out to China Town, 
I wonder ? ” 


34 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“ I am sure I should — if I knew anything about 
it. Where is China Town ? 

“ It is on the other side of that hill,” — he pointed 
up the valley to an undiscovered inland. “ It is the 
headquarters of the Chinese here, and we suspect 
at the root of the mischief. They have got some 
place where they brew this abominable form of 
hashish which sends the ordinary native mad, and 
makes him get up riots and kill white people — you 
see ? But as yet we have not absolutely spotted 
John Chinaman brewing in any large quantities, and 
we cannot condemn on isolated instances. You are 
really interested, Mrs. Lewin ! ” 

Chum laughed a little, conscious that her wide 
eyes were alight with the absorption of the moment, 
and Mr. Halton laughed too. It was one of his 
chief attractions to her that he never paid her a 
compliment, or made a personal remark ; and yet 
his quiet admiration was as patent to her as the 
noisy homage of duller men. 

I am extremely interested ! Is that your theory 
as to the cause of the rioting ? ” 

“ The real cause, certainly. The oppression and 
low wage that was offered as an excuse is nothing 
to a logical mind dealing with these people. There 
are the innocent hemp-crops, and there are the 
wily yellow man and the fools of blacks. But as 
yet we have not the connecting link. They com- 
plained of corvee (forced labour), it is always the 
plea — but we complain of ganja with much more 
reason!” ■ ‘‘ 

‘‘ And do these peoj||e profess to cultivate hemp 
for export ? ” S 

“ A Chinaman, deamac^, will profess anything — 
save the truth. It is ^1 pidgeon to use his own 
universal expression. But if you will get up very 
early to-morrow — say be in the saddle by seven — I 


THE RAT-TRAP 


35 


will take a day off and expound the ethics of China 
Town to you, with spectacular views as illustrations. 
Will you come ? ” 

With pleasure. But can’t you tell me — Ah ! 
what a pity ! ” 

The compliment contained in the genuine ex- 
clamation was perfect because impromptu. It was 
caused by the arrival on the scene of Captain 
Nugent, Mrs. Churton, and Ally, no longer talking 
of stamps but of tennis. 

“ Is it too wet to play, d’you think ? ” Diana 
Churton said to the Commissioner and Mrs. Lewin 
long before she reached them. “ That’s the worst 
of grass — I wish we had gravel courts like that 
stuck-up Mrs. Bertie used to tell us they had in the 
Cape. D’you remember her, Brissy ? My husband 
used to call her pea-hen ! ” 

Was she stuck-up ? I thought she made her- 
self rather friendly,” — Captain Nugent’s voice was 
equally strident to Mrs. Lewin’s ears. “ She was 
telling some story about the State theatricals very 
first time I met her, and Jordan coming on the 
stage dead drunk ! Rather good tale she made of 
it too.” 

Chum began to see that she would have to like 
Brissy in spite of herself, if it were to be done at all. 
A sudden impatience of the chatter round her seized 
her with the tantalising glimpse of more exciting 
things to hear of from Halton. Five seconds later 
she changed her menta^.a^itude, and condemned 
herself for her own lackrof ac^ptability. It was one 
of her theories that th^imme^iate thing was the one 
to grasp and develop as besit .might be, which mental 
schooling resulted in h*fe r J^e ^oming involved in a 
game of cat’s-cradle withlS]ptain Nugent, who was 
playing with a piece of string which had been tied 
round the stamps album. Brissy haano conception 


THE RAT-TRAP 


36 

of mental flirtations undermining even a discussion 
on hemp-growing round China Town ; but he knew 
that if he got “ fish-in-the-pond ” his large hands 
would very likely touch Mrs. Lewin’s in the ma- 
nipulation of the string. Ally had gone to find 
their ponies for the return home, and by the time 
he reappeared the Commissioner had also extri- 
cated himself after his quiet fashion and started with 
them. 

Then you will come for a ride to-morrow ? ” he 
said to Chum carelessly. I am going to show 
your wife China Town, Lewin — she displays such a 
flattering interest, that Government cannot afford to 
allow it to die for lack of cultivation. You were 
there yesterday, eh ? ” 

“ I was ! ” said Ally significantly. “ The most 
beastly hot ride I ever had. You had better be 
careful what time of day you go. Chum.” 

“ Mr. Halton says seven a. m.” 

“ I wish the Administrator had said seven a. m. ! ” 
said Ally, laughing good-humouredly. “ Instead of 
that he said twelve — at a minute’s notice.” 

He does not spare himself ! ” said Halton, with 
a shrug of his shoulders. “ And he sees no reason 
to spare other people. Our paths divide here, I 
am sorry to say. Yours is the shorter cut, Mrs. 
Lewin.” 

‘‘ Good-bye till to-morrow, then.” 

She turned in her saddle, her face framed in by 
the Panama hat she wore fpr riding, her eyes in the 
shadow, a new shaded in which the Commissioner 
had not yet surprise(| them. He reined his own 
pony’s head round into the winding path that made 
a carriage-drive to Government House, while the 
Lewins rode straight om Their bungalow lay only 
a few hundred yards further down the direct road, 
with a short cut through their own plantation to 


THE RAT-TRAP 


37 


Government House. It was by this private path 
that Ally went to his work every morning and 
returned — the click of the rough gate dividing the 
grounds being Chum’s signal for the first luncheon 
bell; but visitors, or the residents of Government 
House themselves, had a half-mile of winding path 
and tangled green before they emerged opposite the 
long straight building where the Union Jack flew 
above lines of blank window-frames and the straight 
pillars of the stoep. There were two stories to 
Government House ; it could accommodate some 
thirty people independently of servants, and the 
Administrator and Commissioner, alone in their 
glory, called it a useful barn. 

As Halton rode slowly along under the palms he 
was hardly thinking of the ethics of China Town, 
being too busy in breaking the tenth command- 
ment. He was a man who had always hankered 
after the unattainable, and been afraid to risk what 
he had for what he desired. He had seen many 
pretty women, whom he thought of regretfully as 
possible wives — after they had been married by other 
men. The old process was beginning again in his 
mind, but the outcome of it was merely a half- 
irritated remark to the Administrator across the 
tete-a-tete dinner-table. 

“ What on earth made you send Lewin out to 
China Town in the heat of the day ? It’s enough 
to kill a man ! ” 

** There was no one else to send,” said Gregory 
simply, looking up in momentary surprise from 
helping himself to fried banana. “ I had a 
message for Burton. He's a good man if you 
like.” 

“ And not to be wasted. It wouldn’t matter if 
Lewin were used up, eh ? ” 

Gregory shrugged his shoulders. What on 


38 


THE RAT-TRAP 


earth did Government mean by sending me a 
Mediterranean Station man ? ” he said in his re- 
pressed tones. “ Who am I to depend on when 
you go ? ” 

“ He may wake up.” 

“ He’ll play tennis.” 

“ I have an idea his wife may push him through,” 
said the Commissioner slowly, poking a hard-back 
beetle with his forefinger as he spoke. He was 
looking at the insect as he spoke, and not at his 
vis-a-vis. Gregory’s lidless eyes were fixed on 
him, however, in their usual direct fashion. “ She 
is by way of being an ambitious woman.” 

“ Is she ? I have no impression of her beyond 
the fact that she was talking rather intelligently to 
Churton, on one occasion.” 

“ When was that ? ” Halton raised his eyes and 
spoke more quickly, still mechanically keeping the 
beetle struggling on his back. 

“ Two days ago, at Mrs. White’s. I didn’t speak 
to Mrs. Lewin, but I heard her talk.” He was 
unaware of the fact that Mrs. Lewin had been 
conscious of him as an audience what time she 
quietly drained the O.C.T. for information. 

“ I think she has brains. She is more attracted 
by Key Island than its meagre diversions.” 

“ Pity the girl isn’t the boy, then ! ” said the 
Administrator cynically. “ This thing that sweats 
through a morning as my private secretary, and 
then with a sigh of relief scrambles into his flannels, 
is cursed with the curse of Reuben.” 

“ Your pet aversion. I think you might be 
worse off, myself. Lewin is at least a gentleman 
— and his duties include an A.D.C.’s, as well as a 
secretary’s.” 

“ Lewin has a pretty wife ! said Gregory bluntly. 

That’s all about it, Halton, J hppe the lady will 


THE RAT-TRAP 


39 


be so shrewd as to see which side her husband’s 
bread is buttered, that’s all. I may get the report 
into some form if she makes him work.” He rose 
in his usual irrelevant fashion, pushing aside the 
last course offered him by the butler, and tossed 
over some papers on a side table. “ Ambroise had 
no news,” he remarked. 

So you need hardly have slipped off to Port 
Albert ! ” retorted Halton. I’ve an engagement 
to-morrow morning, by the way — I shan’t be on 
hand to save friction between you and Lewin.” 

The Administrator opened his- lips as if to say 
something ; but the under-breathed words did not 
come. His hard eyes searched Halton’s reticent 
face for a moment with intent, and in his mind 
he bore another grudge against his Secretary for 
having a wife who could make a fool of a Com- 
missioner. Taff Halton was a clever man, too. 
They had worked together in Central Africa. The 
devil take all women ! 

“ Mrs. Lewin,” drawled Halton, “ was wearing a 
blouse, this afternoon, of a peculiar shade of grey- 
lavender, which seemed like a reflection of her 
eyes. It’s a pity you don’t study colour effects, 
Gregory. You lose so much pleasure.” He knew 
just where to plant his sting, for if there was one 
thing that Evelyn Gregory loathed it was dil- 
ettantism. Halton’s sleepy e3/es saw the curbed 
impatience in Gregory’s face, and he dropped back 
in his chair so happy that other relaxation was 
forgotten ; and the hard-back beetle, no longer kept 
helplessly clawing the air, crawled away, and 
immediately married a lady he discovered in the 
shade of a dessert dish. All grades of life are 
elementary in Key Island. 


CHAPTER III 


“No maker of images worships the gods ; he knows what they 
are made of! ” — Chinese Proverb. 


I AM not sure that I am not making a mistake ! " 
said Chum to her reflections, as she tied her tie in 
severe perfection, and pinned on the Panama hat. 
“ If I could only get hold of the real man himself, 
I am sure I could do something. After all, Mr. 
Halton is only the shadow — he will pass as shadows 
do, and his influence cannot really push Ally." 

She took up her riding-whip slowly, and stood a 
minute in thought. It was ten minutes to seven, 
and she could afford to arrange her ideas. On the 
dressing-table stood the tray with her early coffee, 
but Ally must breakfast alone this morning; she 
did not expect to get back from China Town till 
then. The room was very large and very airy, for 
furniture is superfluous in Key Island, and the lack 
of it increased the sense of size. The bare boards 
were not even polished or stained, and only two 
African goat-skins were thrown down as rugs to 
break its monotony ; there were basket-work chairs 
and a lounge from Madeira, and a bed draped with 
a mosquito curtain with the usual bridal effect. 
The window-frames were many, and were filled 
with shutters turned to let in the air, but not the 
sun, and there was a door with the same con- 
trivance in its upper panels. Outside the windows 
40 


THE RAT-TRAP 


41 


ran the wide bare stoep carefully clear of creepers, 
because vegetation means mosquitoes, which need 
no encouragement. Chum fretted over the bare- 
ness, for her hammock was slung there, and she 
would have liked to swing in a bower of flame- 
colour and rose and greenery, which is to be had 
for the asking in the island. But common-sense 
was triumphant over sentiment, and the stoep was 
comparatively fly less. 

Common-sense was just then fighting for the 
upper hand in Mrs. Lewin’s mental attitude, and 
her pause with the riding-whip idly tapping her 
skirt was the result. It was easy, to say nothing 
of being pleasant, to go on as she had begun, with 
the garrison quite ready to follow in her train, and 
the Commissioner to lend it a certain distinction. 
But it meant no future good for Ally, and Leoline 
Lewin had, without admitting it, begun to see that 
if Ally went up the ladder somebody would have 
to push him rung by rung. 

“ Mr. Halton is so much more interesting ! ” said 
inclination. 

The Administrator has the real power ! ” said 
reason. 

It was all the harder because in the one case she 
knew herself sure of success, and in the other she 
saw probable failure — and Mrs. Lewin disliked 
failure. Every woman in Key Island had made 
tentative efforts to bind Mr. Gregory to her chariot 
wheels, and had quietly drawn back without a hint 
of her defeat, after the manner of her sex. The 
only difference to Mrs. Lewin’s case was that she 
really wished to interest Mr. Gregory in her 
husband and not in herself ; but she could not hope 
that this would make her any more successful. 

“ Besides, he must begin by liking me, and being 
interested in me, though he doesn’t know it,” she 


42 


THE RAT-TRAP 


said to herself candidly. ‘‘And at present he 
simply does not know that I exist. Well, perhaps 
China Town may prove useful — some day.” 

She went across the house to her husband’s dress- 
ing-room, where he had slept in order that her 
early rising might not disturb him, and looked in 
before starting. Alaric was lying with his arm 
thrown up above his head, in a boyish fashion that 
made him seem very young in spite of the manli- 
ness of the bronzed dark face, and the thick mous- 
tache on his upper lip. Chum bent down and 
ruffled his hair rather fondly, and he sighed in his 
sleep and turned over, but did not wake. There 
was a shadow of vague yearning in her eyes as she 
turned away and went out on to the stoep. Mar- 
riage had touched her lightly, but this was one of 
the rare moments when she felt a craving after 
something more satisfying — something that might 
even be welcome pain if it were only less ephemeral. 

The morning air was brisk compared to the gen- 
eral laxity of Key Island. Mrs. Lewin mounted 
the pony which the sais held for her, and rode away 
through the listening day, with her senses equally 
alert. For it seemed at this hour as if everything 
had ears, or a keener vitality that looked for new 
experiences. Even Liscarton trod daintily, and 
sidled through the gate into the highway, pretend- 
ing that he saw bogies among the ragged fans of 
the bananas. Where the path dipped down into 
Port Victoria the hoofs of a second pony became 
audible, and a minute later the Commissioner over- 
took her and drew up alongside. 

“ You are before your time, Mrs. Lewin ; I meant 
to pick you up at your own gate,” he said gaily. 
He also seemed in unusual harmony with Nature. 
“ Isn’t it worth while to rise early and get the spring 
of the morning into one’s system ? I feel like that 


THE RAT-TRAP 


43 


charming person in Scripture who ‘ walked deli- 
cately/ though I am afraid he was hardly a model 
to copy in his after-history.” 

“ Agag, wasn’t it ? ” said Chum. “ I always felt 
I should have liked to follow his career a little fur- 
ther, but one never gets a chance. Do you notice 
how very badly they tell a story in the Bible ? 
They have no idea of keeping back the end of the 
plot. ‘Now Ahab was fallen sick of the sickness 
whereof he died/ they say, and, of course, as you 
know what is coming, it seems superfluous to read 
any further.” 

“ In fact, you don’t care about Ahab unless he is 
going to live.” 

“ I never did care for the pawns in the game who 
are sacrificed. It is the big pieces who accomplish 
the struggle, whether they do ill or well, who inter- 
est me. I feel that they have made something out 
of life, instead of life making something out of 
them.” 

“ And yet there can be no attainment without 
self-sacrifice,” said Halton quietly. 

They were riding through the little town, some- 
times in the shadow of the unruly palms, which 
waved like banners over the low wooden houses, 
sometimes in the new-born sunshine. There were 
a few natives about, but no w^hite people. At the 
hotel a single disconsolate Chinaman was flapping 
a cloth on the stoep, and Mrs. Lewin looked up, 
remembering her first night there, and laughed. 
Discomforts passed by her easily at present. By 
and by the ponies began to ascend the further hill 
which circles the back of the town by a zigzag 
path, and it seemed that the little white houses and 
the blue bay fell gradually below them, until they 
topped the ridge and drew rein a moment to breath 
their mounts before tliey began to descend on the 


44 


THE RAT-TRAP 


other side of the hill called the Pass. In Africa it 
would have been a Nek/’ for it really connected 
Maitso and the lower heights of Mitsinjovy, but 
Key Island has not caught so much of the Dutch 
influence. 

Are you afraid to canter ? ” Halton said. Your 
pony does not seem blown.” 

“ He is Captain Nugent’s pony, and you probably 
know his capacities better than I. He danced when 
I set off, but the hill has sobered him — however, 
we can soon see. Come up, Liscarton ! ” 

The game little chestnut stretched his neck to 
the loosened rein, and broke into the rocking Key’- 
land canter. There was a rough, tangled path be- 
fore them, and a gradual descent, but the ponies 
were used to it and took it with a sober joy. As 
the second valley opened before them Mrs. Lewin 
saw the draped hills and the patches of liquid yel- 
low-green that meant cane intermixed with the 
darker hemp, and as they rounded a curve of the 
track they came suddenly in view of a tiny native 
settlement. 

The Commissioner drew rein. “ I’m not going 
to take you absolutely into it,” he said, but that 
is China Town. It is suspected of yellow fever 
just now, and a man has died — it is probably only 
billiousness though. The doctors are always quar- 
relling about the two.” 

It looked the happiest and most innocent little 
spot on earth — far more innocent than Port Vic- 
toria, with its ominous wharves and coaling jetties 
for the sea traffic. There was even a little pagoda 
to one building, and tiny blue-coated figures were 
moving about busily, looking like a new kind of 
ant from the distance of the hillside. Most of the 
huts were thatched with reed, and the whole village 
was little more than a scattered group. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


45 


“ Do you see that larger house apart from the 
others ? ” said Halton, pointing across the valley. 
“That is where Burton, the Town-warden, lives. 
He is Gregory’s right-hand man out here, and 
watches the place like a sleuth-hound.” 

“ It seems impossible that anything could be 
hidden there ! ” Mrs. Lewin exclaimed involuntarily. 
“ Why, there is nowhere to hide it ! ” 

“ Nevertheless they very successfully have hidden 
their source of murder,” said Halton dryly. “ That 
large barn-like arrangement is the sugar factory, 
but you cannot very well distinguish it from here. 
Unless they manage to conceal their evil brew there 
it must be done in their own houses.” 

“ And is it really so serious an evil ? ” 

“ It caused the death of some eighty white peo- 
ple, indirectly. The rioters were mad with drink — 
with this hashish — and they rose with a suddenness 
no one could foresee, because it was unpremeditated 
on their own part. Let a native get drunk on 
hashish and he goes out to kill. There were no 
regular troops here in the time of the Company, 
only a police force officered by men lent by the 
War Office, and these gentlemen appear to have 
been mostly on leave, shooting in Madagascar.” 

“ But how were the rioters armed ? ” 

“ They broke into the houses and armed them- 
selves. The favourite weapon was a razor bound 
on to a stick, with which they jabbed upwards, but 
no kind of knife was despised. The most appalling 
thing was when they made a kind of torch out 
of the half-worked hemp soaked in oil and set 
their victims alight — am I frightening you, Mrs. 
Lewin ?” 

« No — ^but I have a very vivid imagination. I 
can see it all, and it turns me rather sick. Did the 
Chinamen fight too ? ” 


46 


THE RAT-TRAP 


‘‘ A few, though the worst offenders were the 
half-castes and the Malagasy. The AraH is as 
great a coward as the pure native, so that part 
of the population were comparatively harmless. 
There was a good deal of carnage among the 
planters and residents before the police got the 
upper hand, and the consequence was that Govern- 
ment had to step in and take over the island to re- 
duce it to order.” 

“ Whence followed a Commissioner to make en- 
quiries, and Mr. Gregory to teach them a lesson. 
Did he teach them, by the way ? ” 

“ I believe he did — a slight one,” said Halton 
briefly. I arrived on the scene a week or so 
later.” 

“ I wonder the Government puts power into his 
hands, considering that they always seem to have 
to censure him afterwards,” said Mrs. Lewin mus- 
ingly. 

It is rather difficult to ignore a successful man,” 
said Halton, even the British Government find 
that. And he has been most uncomfortably suc- 
cessful on several occasions, though his measures 
may have been drastic.” 

“ I see. You generally come out a week or so 
later, I suppose ? ” 

“ It is the one boon I wring out of the Colonial 
Office ; but I am speaking confidentially, Mrs. 
Lewin. You happen to know these things be- 
cause you are here and in touch with them. At 
home they know little, because Mr. Gregory has 
quite a prejudice against the Press.” * 

“ They might hinder him, but I doubt anything 
really stopping his drastic measures, as you call 
them.” A memory of the Administrator’s face rose 
before her like a revelation — the overhanging brows 
and forehead, the savage, lidless eyes, the secretive 


THE RAT-TRAP 


47 


mouthy that lurked under the ragged moustache. 
Above all, the voice that spoke under his breath 
seemed to her ominous. Here was a strong man, 
not afraid to do lawless things and call them law by 
his own authority. Her blood tingled a little with 
the thought. “ How they must hate him ! ” she 
said. “ How weaker men must long to tie his 
hands and make him pay for proving them his in- 
feriors, in action at least ! ” 

“ If we could tax success it would no doubt be a 
popular measure with the majority — who have not 
succeeded.” 

There was a flash of appreciation in Mrs. 
Lewin’s eyes, but all she said was, “ The lighter 
green is the cane, I suppose ? ” in an irrelevant 
tone. 

“ Yes, but this is a small crop compared to a big 
sugar estate — Denver’s, or* the Tsara Valley crops, 
for instance. There is no considerable hemp-grow- 
ing in Key’land, and we wish there was none at all. 
There it is at present, however.” 

He pointed with his whip, and her eyes followed 
and distinguished the two plantations. The hemp 
was thinly sown, as it always is for intoxicating pur- 
poses, whereas when honestly cultivated for fibre the 
plants are crowded together. It was not yet in 
flower, for the sowing was in October or November 
— the spring of the Key’land year, the Tsara of 
Madagascar. The young plants stood stiffly, and 
were branched even to the roots ; from the distance 
where^.Mrs. Lewin and Halton had paused it was 
just possible to distinguish how far apart the plants 
grew, unlike the unbroken sweep of the sugar-cane. 
The crop was always sown on higher ground too, 
generally on the gentle slope of the further hills, 
for hemp does not love a low level. The dark 
green of its wide leaves contrasted boldly with the 


48 


THE RAT-TRAP 


lighter cane, and made a pleasant patchwork of the 
valley. 

“ They don’t pull the male flowers until January, 
and the female a month later,” remarked Halton, 
looking across the wicked sexual hemp that flow- 
ered twelve feet high in Hashish Valley, for it liked 
the rich soil. “ You know, of course, that it has 
two genders.” 

“ And then ? ” 

Then it is converted, ostensibly, into ropes, and 
food for small birds, and other innocent and useful 
things, in that hemp mill down there. Now, Mrs. 
Lewin, you are looking at the sugar factory.” 

“ I am not, indeed ; I can see the mill quite 
plainly. And I suppose the Chinese really turn it 
into hashish ? ” 

“Well, I suppose it is stolen and secretly con- 
verted into bhang or ganja first. I don’t exactly 
know what form it takes here, but I’ve seen bhang, 
and its results, in India. So has Gregory ! ” he 
added significantly. 

“ I wonder they are not found out.” 

“ It is so simple, you see. Bhang is only the 
dried leaves and stalks of the hemp, and if you heat 
it with water and butter I assure you that you get 
quite a surprising result ! My own opinion is, 
though, that they are yet more diabolical down 
there in China Town, and dissolve the resin in 
rum ; you can use any alcohol for the purpose, but 
the rum being at hand they would naturally take 
it.” 

“ And then they dance the carrab dance. I re- 
member the pictures in the illustrated papers at the 
time of the rioting. Ally — I mean Captain Lewin 
— says they were quite wrong, but I found them 
sufficiently impressive. I should like to be that 
man down there, nevertheless — Burton, did you say 


THE RAT-TRAP 


49 


his name was ? — who is working with Mr. Gregory. 
I feel I want to have a hand in it too — to meddle, in 
fact. It has its advantages, being a man, though I 
seldom see them.” 

“ I thought that to be a pretty girl was the 
height of bliss,” said Halton, with his gentlest insin- 
uation. 

“ So it is, until you meet with a prettier, per- 
haps,” said Chum. There was a flash of mirth in 
her eyes, and the deeper drift of the conversation 
passed away like the shadow of the clouds over the 
sugar-cane. 

“ I suppose we ought to turn back,” said Halton 
regretfully, as the sun’s warmth began to increase to 
undoubted heat and glare. If I bring you home 
in the trying part of the day I shall expect to hear 
of it from Captain Lewin.” 

Chum had loosened her rein, and Liscarton, with 
his lean head stretched out, was cropping an early 
breakfast on the hillside. Liscarton was always 
hungry — his sais calls it greedy — and the instant his 
rein was relaxed, he would wrench it through his 
rider’s hands and nose the ground for something to 
eat. Mrs. Lewin had already learned that he had a 
will of his own that threatened to take the skin off 
her fingers did she keep his head up when standing ; 
and she loved him none the less. She could forgive 
wrong-headedness, but she found it very difficult to 
forgive docility when it meant laziness. She sat 
easily in her saddle, her right hand resting on the 
pony’s flank, her body turned that she might look 
down on China Town with those musing eyes that 
were green and dusk and lavender-grey by turns. 
And Alfred Halton watched her with fastidious ap- 
preciation, while by an irony of fate she thought 
definitely of the Administrator and his plans, and 
the ominous strength that was his attribute. A 


50 


THE RAT-TRAP 


man to have as a friend — a power to reach to high 
places — yes, decidedly an influence to have for you 
rather than against you ! 

“ Have you noticed the names in Key Island ? ” 
said Halton, as they gathered up the reins and rode 
their ponies slowly homeward over the Pass. 

“ No, not particularly, except that I heard Mrs. 
Churton say she should go out to Vohitra if it grew 
much hotter. Where is Vohitra?” 

“ Vohitra is our health-resort — it is a big bunga- 
low up in the hills at the northern part of the 
island, some two miles or so from Port Albert. 
Vohitra is a badly-chosen name, for it simply means 
hill. The place is shut up unless any one wants to 
go out there, but sometimes the garrison ladies 
make up a house-party, and then I believe it is 
pleasant, though there is nothing to do except shoot 
fish.” 

How very unsportsmanlike ! ” 

“ Well, you can’t catch them otherwise. No fly 
has ever been found that they will take. Can you 
shoot ? ” 

“ Yes — though I prefer a revolver to a gun. I 
object to a bruised shoulder ! What language is 
Vohitra? ” 

“ Malagasy. All the names on this side the 
island — the Madagascan side — have a flavour of 
their giant neighbour, though she is some two hun- 
dred and fifty miles off, except Port Victoria and 
Port Albert, which are strictly loyal, you will note. 
Maitso means ^ green,’ and Mitsinjovy ‘ look out ’ or 
‘ see ’ ; but,” he added, laughing, “ the Gunners’ 
quarters have almost been renamed by White’s lit- 
tle boy, who calls Mitsinjovy^ the ‘ By-Jovey-Hill ! ’ 
and the name has stuck.” 

How lovely ! I do like the way children wres- 
tle with names they don’t understand, and turn 


THE RAT-TRAP 


51 


them into the sense that lies nearest. You said 
Vohitra was at Port Albert — I have not been there 
yet.’' 

“ Well, it is rather in the Tsara Valley. There 
is another lovely name for you — Tsara, spring o’ 
the year ! And the Volofatsy River that cuts the 
valley in two, means the silver river. I wish, for 
the sake of euphony, that Key Island had all Mala- 
gasy names ; but on the west coast you feel the 
influence of Africa, and get Sand Bay, and Africa 
Point, and even the Little Zambesi.” 

“ I like that — there seems some suggestion in it. 
But then I am rather inclined to like Key Island.” 

“ So I am amazed to observe. You will forgive 
my wondering if it will last, or if you too will grow 
to look on it as a three years’ probation to better 
things.” 

“ And call it a rat-trap, as you did ! I dare say 
I shall — and yet I cannot imagine it. The place 
seems to me too recently dangerous to be dull, and 
too possibly important in the near future to be ig- 
nored. And then one can always hope for one of 
Mr. Gregory’s drastic measures, and a little excite- 
ment ! ” 

“ Do let me get home first ! ” said Halton plain- 
tively. “ You have never seen him through one of 
his shindies, and you don’t know how fatiguing it 
is. I hope the Government will recall me while I 
can plead peace with honour, and give me an arm- 
chair in a quiet corner, from which to contemplate 
Gregory burning the hemp-crops seven thousand 
comfortable miles away.” 

For a minute Mrs. Lewin looked a little startled, 
but she did not comment on the suggestion, which 
was lightly made. Even her ignorance of the pop- 
ular feeling and prejudices could not blind her to 
the seriousness of such a step as the burning of the 


52 


THE RAT-TRAP 


hemp-crops would be, and she wondered if the man 
who gave orders under his breath would have the 
nerve for such an incredible stroke. She also won- 
dered why Halton had put such an idea into her 
head under the guise of absurd exaggeration, for 
she did not believe in his lack of motive. 

‘‘ I am really very much obliged to you ! ” she 
said frankly, as they shook hands at her own gate. 
“ You have appeased some of my curiosity, and 
given me a delightful ride before the heat.” Her 
eyes met the sleepy brown ones that watched her 
so covertly. “ I can’t, of course, repay you ” 

“ Unless you will let me plan another like excur- 
sion ? ” 

“ Will I not ? ” said Chum gaily. ** Only try me ! 
Good-bye, Mr. Halton — if you see my husband 
you might tell him not to be late for luncheon. 
There are granadillas and flying-fish, and he loves 
both ! ” 

As he rode away Halton thought of the shady 
dining-room in the bungalow, the fruit-laden table, 
and the wife who thought of her husband’s tastes 
and sat opposite to him in the cool sweetness of her 
white gowns. No one thought of his tastes, with- 
out irritated supervision, and he found Evelyn Greg- 
ory a poor alternative to the tall girl whose effect 
haunted his mind. He did not see her exactly in 
detail, as a woman whose inches looked more from 
her slight build, and whose hair was a warm brown, 
and her eyes as changing as 

“ The rare glooms on the far blue hills,” 

but he said inclusively that she was charming, and 
her atmosphere left a blank in his consciousness 
when it was removed. 

“ Note from garrison,” the Administrator said 


THE RAT-TRAP 


53 


briefly, tossing it across the luneheon-table as he 
sat down. “ Mrs. Churton has a function of sorts 
next week. Gymkana, or some such foolery, at the 
polo-ground — she hopes we will refresh at her 
house.” 

“ I can’t stand that woman ! ” said Halton, fretted 
by a comparison. “ She leaves a taste in my mouth 
like a cigarette that has gone out.” 

“ It’s your liver. Who hasn’t a liver in this heat ? 
My ideal, these days, is a clean tongue and a desire 
for breakfast.” 

“ Mrs. Churton is forty;” pursued Halton spite- 
fully. “ And she aims at three-and-thirty. A 
woman of forty is only tolerable as a background 
for her daughters ! ” 

The Administrator looked across the space of 
white cloth and guavas — there were no granadillas ! 
— with a grim line about the corners of his hidden 
lips. 

I hope you enjoyed your ride ! ” he said po- 
litely, with a suggestion of unappreciated humour. 



CHAPTER IV 


“A man’s best fortune, or his worst, is a wife .” — English 
Prmerb. 

The telephone bell rang at eight in the morning, 
and if Ally were so disagreeable as to grunt and 
turn over on the other side, Chum used to get up 
and go to it herself. She was usually aggravated 
by the man at Maitso Exchange demanding of her 
if she were there, and then no further communica- 
tion. He was the Hub of the Port Victorian Uni- 
verse, and had become autocratic through bitterness 
of spirit ; therefore he thought it just retribution to 
make sure beforehand that all the usual communi- 
cation points were in working order before he 
actually had to connect them. 

All the gossip of Key Island goes through the 
telephone, which is as inappropriate to Port Vic- 
toria as her electric light. It is the alternative for 
a post too, for the Planters, living some three miles 
out, have no other means of communication, and it 
is very much safer to make your own business ar- 
rangements with a fellow at Maitso or Mitsinjovy, 
or to order more soda water from Van Buren’s 
Stores, than trust to a letter, even if you are only a 
mile from the post-office. When the Lewin Bun- 
galow was connected. Chum usually found herself 
besieged with friendly enquiries as to how she was, 
and how Ally Sloper was, and a little conversation 

54 


THE RAT-TRAP 


55 


ensued that was as strictly unofficial as all Key ’land 
characteristics. She only resented it on Sunday, 
when English habit still clung to her and made her 
feel injured for lack of an extra half-hour in bed, 
but as Ally took more rousing than the time spent 
at the telephone, it generally ended in Mrs. Lewin 
walking into the dining-room bare-foot, yawning 
delightfully, and a wasted vision of beauty in desha- 
bille^ since the personality at the other end of the 
communication tube was only a voice. 

‘‘ Well, who are you ? ” she said sleepily. 

« j » 

Oh ! well. Ally’s asleep still — I should say he 
was in rude health, unless that suggests a liver ! ” 

« . . . . . ? ” 

“ Am I ever anything else ! And you saw me 
yesterday.” 

« I » 

“ Oh, the day before, was it ? I’m sorry I for- 
got!” 

« 

If you are sentimental through the telephone, I 
shall ring off 1 ” 

“ No ; really ? We hadn’t heard because we 
couldn’t go to the Gilderoys.” 

a 

« Oh, they did, did they ! People in glass houses 
shouldn’t throw stones. Who lost their way back 
from the Rano Valley the other night, eh. Captain 
Nugent ? ” 

« ? ” 

“ Oh, some one told me — I forget who.” 
! ” 

“ Isn’t it true ? Well, you needn’t be so tragic 
over it I ” 

« ?” 


56 


THE RAT-TRAP 


** Yes, we shall come to church like good Chris- 
tians. Fm going to ride Liscarton. By the way, 
when do you want him back ? ” 

Don’t you think pretty speeches are rather 
wasted on a married woman ? ” 

« ” 

Perhaps you are keeping your hand in ! ” 

« ” 

“ I can’t listen to any more — Fm too sleepy. 
Good-bye ! — Ring off, please ! ” 

At breakfast she said, “ Ally, we lost a joke by 
not going to the Gilderoys. The Denver girl and 
Mr. Gurney went into the garden to find a ping- 
pong ball, and wandered on to the next door stoep 
by mistake (?), and didn’t turn up till midnight. 
Can’t you fancy Captain Gilderoy’s state of mind 
when he had to go out and look for them with a 
lantern ? ” 

“ With Mrs. Gilderoy making her brisk little 
comments in the background ! She has a danger- 
ous tongue, that woman. Won’t she give a fine 
version of the tale all round Maitso ! Who told 
you, Chum ? ” 

Brissy — on the ’phone. He said a lot of pretty 
things to me too. That’s what you get by leaving 
your wife to attend to the thing ! I couldn’t really 
hear,” she added candidly, “ but I could gather that 
he simpered, so I laughed too. It’s generally safe 
to laugh ! ” 

“ I shall have to cane Brissy one of these days ! ” 
said Alaric, stretching out a shapely hand for the 
guava jelly. He had beautiful hands, and Chum 
noted them for the hundredth time as he did it. 
She always thought that they would have better 
suited a doctor than a soldier. Are we going to 
church, Chum ? ” he said. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


57 


j “ Yes, I promised the Churtons yesterday. They 
,vvant us to lunch there. We can ride up after 
I service, can't we ? ” 

: “ If you like. I suppose as it is Sunday there 

will be no Bridge — awful bore, isn’t it ? ” 

' “ If you think Sunday will warn Major Churton 

joff his Bridge, you don’t realise the man. I like the 
'Major, Ally.” 

“ He’s a decent chap. His wife’s the better 
horse, I expect.” 

I don’t think so. He looks like a man who 
would be any woman’s master. If you notice, 
when he says No ! even Di Churton can’t say 
Yes ! ” 

Ally laughed a little shortly, as if at some checked 
reminiscence. He changed the subject too, rather 
briefly. 

“ Doesn’t Brissy want his pony back ? ” 

“ He said not. I wish you would buy Liscarton, 
Ally ; I have grown to like him.” 

It was part of her adaptability that she could 
really earnestly desire the little Key’land pony, and 
enjoy his paces, after riding thoroughbred hunters 
and hacks that made other riders in the county 
envious. Leoline Lewin lived in her present, as 
5he had said to Halton, and the chestnut pony had 
become the simple object of her equestrian ambi- 
don out in Key Island. 

“ There are lots better ponies,” said Ally. 

! “ Never mind ! I like Liscarton.” 

“ I don’t think Brissy would sell.” 

He’s very good-natured,” said Chum adroitly. 
She made no reference to the probable influence of 
her own wishes upon Captain Nugent. 

; “ Well — I’ll see.” Ally rose and stretched him- 
self, walking off to his dressing-room with shoulders 
square, while Chum admired him as usual. He 


58 


THE RAT-TRAP 


came out later immaculate in white breeches and 
linen coat, and seriously considered the problem 
as to whether he should wear a Panama hat or a 
white helmet, until his wife decided in favour of the 
Panama. 

“ I don’t like helmets out of uniform,” she said, 
looking over his shoulder at his good looks reflected 
in a hanging glass, with kindly pride. “ And you 
are just as smart in the straw. Don’t titivate any 
more, old fellow, or I shall think it is for Di Chur- 
ton, and have to make a dead set for the Major to 
balance things.” 

Ally laughed a little self-consciously. There was 
more in Chum’s speech than she knew’ — more than 
had been said at present. When the male animal 
is being flattered with attentions from the female, he 
may not glance at her with half an eye ; but he be- 
gins to plume himself. Alaric glanced appreci- 
atively at his wife’s figure as Liscarton carried her to 
church by his side, and thought vaguely that she 
was a heap better looking than any other woman 
out there, and that they made rather a handsome 
couple. Then he thought that Chum reflected 
credit on his own taste, and then he remembered 
with some very private satisfaction that Di Churton 
had made a determined show of preference for him 
from the first. He did not really admire Mrs. Chur- 
ton, save that he could recognize the swing of her 
own self-assertion in her position ; he never thought 
of comparing her with Leoline in a single detail. 
But Alaric Lewin was as easily flattered as a child, 
and singularly manageable for a really handsome 
man. 

The English church at Port Victoria stands a 
little above the town, towards Maitso. It is singu- 
larly like an enormous caravan, with six stumpy 
legs in place of wheels, and worshippers go up a 


THE RAT-TRAP 


59 


flight of wooden steps to reach its barnlike interior. 
Most buildings in Key Island are raised above the 
ground for fear of snakes, but the church and the 
native huts have wooden props rather than a solid 
foundation. There being no church at Maitso, or 
as yet at Mitsinjovy, the men were marched down 
to service by aggrieved and sweating subalterns, 
or a senior officer, and given as much room as could 
be spared from the civilians. Truth to tell, the 
military force had to take it in turns to be religious, 
service being held in barracks, by the chaplain, for 
the Wessex, when the Gunners came down to Port 
Victoria, and vice versa. On this particular Sunday 
Captain Nugent and Mr. Gurney were bucketing 
their men into the pews when the Lewins rode up 
to the churchyard. Their sais had preceded them 
and took the ponies, hitching them up to the rail- 
ings in the shade with native indifference, and drop- 
ping lazily on the grass to slumber away service 
time. Chum w^alked up the steps and into church 
in the wake of the soldiers, and sat down in her 
seat, drawing her habit round her and feeling the 
whole thing horribly unreal. Through the wide 
flung shutters she could see palm-trees waving 
tuftily in a splash of blue sky, and a gorgeous hi- 
biscus had thrust a flame of blossom in at one aper- 
ture which was seldom closed. There was nothing 
to prevent the flowers coming to church, or the wild 
green^things outside either, for the only glass in the 
place was the East window — a horrid picture of the 
Ascension, so quaintly designed that the figure of 
the Christ was cut off at the waist, the feet in red 
slippers hanging down into the picture, the rest of 
the body out of sight. Chum was always fascinated 
by that window, for she hated it, and the astonished 
faces of the kneeling apostles made her want to 
laugh. No wonder they looked as if they wondered 


6o 


THE RAT-TRAP 


where the rest of the centre figure was gone to — 
and yet she had an educated horror of irreverence. 
Service, with the thermometer at 90° in the shade, 
however, was not at best a success. The soldiers 
fidgeted, and stared out of window at the palms, 
and Brissy Nugent pulled fretfully at his black 
moustache to keep himself awake. When the 
mumbling old rector concluded his sermon and the 
final hymn was given out, every one rose with re- 
lief, and high above the defective choir rose the 
voice of Hamilton Gurney, who was senior sub. of 
the Wessex, but was more remarkable for a tenor 
voice of unusual compass and power. 

« Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, 

Praise Him, all creatures here below,” 

droned the organ ; but Gurney’s voice, rising into 
the hot rafters of the church, seemed the only real 
religion of the whole ceremony. 

I wish I could have gone to sleep, as you did. 
Ally,” said Mrs. Lewin, with frank regret, as they 
came out into the sunshine again. I should have 
felt that it had done me so much more good if 
I had.” 

Great Scot ! the difficulty is to go to sleep, 
when that old boy is meandering round about the 
Chronicles ! It would be as much as Lysle’s head 
was worth if he preached more than ten minutes. 
But he’s a jolly good sort.” 

That’s that round-faced man who is regimental 
chaplain,” mused Chum. “ He always puts me in 
mind of a cherub out for a holiday.” 

The Churtons joined them in the church porch, 
Diana in a holland habit and white helmet, as near 
to khaki as might be. She annexed Ally with the 
boldness of a woman accustomed to stalk her game 
in the open, and Mrs, Lewin turned to the Major to 


THE RAT-TRAP 


6i 


mount her, in no wise disturbed. They sat on their 
ponies for a minute to allow the men to pass, before 
turning to the bridle path that made a short cut to 
Maitso, and as the Wessex swung past her. Chum 
looked along the road taken by the moving hel- 
mets, and saw a solitary horseman stopped in like 
manner to themselves. 

Gregory’s Powder ! ” said Diana over her shoul- 
der to those behind her. 

Besides the Churtons’ and the Lewins’ ponies, 
the road was blocked by Captain and Mrs. Gilderoy, 
an open cart belonging to the Denver girl, and 
several other people and their modes of convey- 
ance. As he came full into a group that he knew, 
the Administrator per force stopped and touched 
his helmet to the party. He looked more at his 
ease in the saddle than in correct cloth at some 
Key’land function, as Mrs. Lewin had hitherto met 
him, though he rode with a loose-limbed careless- 
ness that contrasted with the firm seats and carriage 
of the army men. 

“ How do you do, Mr. Gregory ? Have you been 
to church in the open air?” Di Churton called 
across the last of the retreating khaki figures. 

“ I do not go to church, except officially,” said 
the Administrator, without any softening of the 
assertion. “ It is getting hot for ladies to be in the 
saddle, isn’t it ? ” 

** Well, you should order the services earlier,” 
retorted Mrs. Churton. “ I suppose your authority 
might do something even in that particular — 
officially ! We are taking possession of your 
Secretary and Mrs. Lewin, who are coming up to 
lunch with us.” 

Something crossed the Administrator’s face — a 
gleam of satiric memory to which Chum had not 
the key. But as his eyes met hers, and he saluted 


62 


THE RAT-TRAP 


again, she tried to hold them with an impersonal 
effort that had become habit to her. 

“ Where is Mr. Halton this morning ? ” was what 
she happened to say with a little smile, and she left 
her face, and her figure which was so at ease with 
her pony, to do the rest. 

The gleam in Gregory's eyes became a silent 
laugh. “ I don’t know — I thought he was going to 
church,” he said drily ; and then he made a passing 
remark to Miss Denver and Mrs. Gilderoy, and rode 
away as if he had done his duty. 

“ Tarred us all with the same brush — a sentence 
a-piece,” said Mrs. Churton, with a loud laugh. 
“ Come along, all of you ; the sun is going to be 
piping up the hill.” 

She reined in her pony for an instant to allow 
Captain Lewin to come abreast with her, and they 
began to climb up through the hill plantations of 
guava and palm and mango, the flickering of the 
light and shade touching the white riders and the 
dark ponies as they passed. Ally looked young 
this morning in his cool linen, and Diana Churton 
approved of youth. She was more than usually 
appropriative in her manner, having reached that 
stage when, like a good cricketer, she had got 
set,” and could trust to her attack. Behind them 
rode Captain and Mrs. Gilderoy, who were also 
lunching at the quarters of the O.C.T., and who had 
a devoted fashion of always riding with each other 
in public. Captain Gilderoy was Garrison Adjutant, 
and Mrs. Lewin had never met him at any social 
function, for he made his work an excuse to evade 
the monotonous round he hated. His wife used to 
say that she had worn out all excuses for his non- 
presence, and now told the truth — he simply would 
not accompany her. Nevertheless, he knew the 
life of the whole station, and commented upon it 


THE RAT-TRAP 


63 


with a freedom and bitterness which his hearers 
hardly realised on account of a very charming man- 
ner. He could say ill-natured things in a deep 
sweet voice, that slipped such poison into a hearer’s 
mind without any disagreeable taste at the moment ; 
but his rasping criticisms had made him the best- 
feared man in the garrison. His wife added the 
grace of wit to her own backbiting, and had a way 
of wrinkling up her face until her eyes were two 
dancing slits, while she turned a harmless incident 
into a dangerously good story. Together they had 
laughed away the reputations of half their acquaint- 
ance, yet it was difficult to locate their mischief 
through the light chatter that carried it. 

Captain Gilderoy had struck Mrs. Lewin at first 
sight as an ugly man, but his voice was so free from 
malice, that when she heard him speak she thought 
she liked him. It was an impression she never 
wholly lost, only when he smiled he reminded her 
of a snarling dog, and it put her as instinctively on 
her guard as the actual animal would have done. 
His wife was one of the few garrison ladies who 
were on friendly terms with Diana Churton, partly 
because they clashed in no particular, and partly 
because it was Mrs. Gilderoy’s policy not to quarrel. 
She was an unobtrusive little person to look at, 
with a quick manner, and a trick of saying apt 
things that Diana vaguely realised was attractive to 
men, and valued accordingly. She only priced 
women’s gifts by their effect on the opposite sex, 
and though Mrs. Gilderoy had no flesh and blood 
pretensions, she had an odd attractiveness that in- 
creased with her acquaintance. Mrs. Lewin had 
felt this already, in the few times they had met, and 
was honestly glad that she was also lunching at the 
Churtons’. 

The rear of the party was the Officer in Com- 


THE RAT-TRAP 


64 

mand of the Troops and Chum herself; but she 
rode with the bitterness of defeat upon her, so that 
she was less conscious than usual of her companion. 
Major Churton, for his part, was honestly admiring 
the beautiful curve of her figure from shoulder to 
waist, and the lift at the corners of her lips. He 
had found out already that Mrs. Lewin was easy to 
laugh with, and she answered the rein of his fancy 
as perfectly as a horse with a good mouth. 

The air grew perceptibly fresher as they rose, but 
the climb was steep, and both horses and riders bore 
signs of the heat when they pulled up before the 
Churtons’ quarters. Two or three servants appeared 
with noiseless swiftness to take the ponies, but 
Major Churton himself lifted Chum out of her sad- 
dle as easily as if she were a child. He was a man 
who loved his own strength. The party went on to 
the stoep, and the men promptly augmented their 
racing blood with stimulant, after the fashion of 
Englishmen. There is a particular drink in Key 
Island which is called Ceho,^ and which is taken 
before or after meals, as the fancy prescribes. It is 
not therefore the cocktail of the West Indies, nor is 
it the Whiskey-up " of Africa, or the highball of 
America, or the universally styled “ Drink " of < 
England, which ranges from simple beer to the last ^ 
frenzy liqueur. Ceho is compounded of many in- > 
gredients, but the old seasoned rum of the island is r 
its foundation, and strange juices from tropic plants i 
go to make it an evil thing. It is always iced, and ^ 
generally precedes a whiskey and soda, which it ^ 
demands by reason of a tickled throat ; but some ? 

1 Ceho means simply « call ” — the sarcastic inference in the na- I 
tive mind being that an Englishman’s most universal call is for % 
strong drink. There being no bells in Key Island a shout brings 1 
the servant — usually with the ingredients for a Ceho, which order 1 
he takes for granted. I 


THE RAT-TRAP 


65 


men, and these are hardened Planters, can take three 
or four cehos running in preference to longer liqueur, 
and do not die — at once. 

Ally and Captain Gilderoy took cehos, and 
Major Churton a whiskey and soda, in which his 
wife followed suit. Mrs. Gilderoy declined and 
was overruled, and Mrs. Lewin rose and poured 
out the last of the soda water for herself without 
adulteration. 

“ Do you really like it alone ? ” said Mrs. Gilde- 
roy, looking up at the tall figure. “ Take care. 
Chum ! my husband will jog your elbow. — Oh, I 
am so sorry ! ” she broke off lightly. “ But it comes 
so naturally to call you that. It somehow suits you.” 

“ Do, if you like,” said Mrs. Lewin good-humour- 
edly. “ I expect we shall all fall into the Christian- 
name stage eventually, so why not at once ? I am 
sure you all call my husband Ally Sloper — it is so 
appropriate ! ” 

Every one glanced at Ally, tall and strong and 
triumphantly good to look upon, and there was a 
general laugh. 

Ah, but Chum isn’t your name, and I know 
Captain Lewin calls you so!” said Mrs. Gilderoy, 
with faint suggestion in her tone. 

Yes, from nursery days. Ally never has called 
me anything else but Chum, because it amply de- 
fined the position. I don’t mind other people using 
it a bit.” 

Mrs. Gilderoy half closed her eyes, and looked 
up with a glitter of laughter in them. “ When you 
talk like that it sounds as if you had married your 
brother I ” she said. 

But Mrs. Lewin’s smooth fair cheeks did not even 
flush. She was chattering with Major Churton over 
a gymkana next week, and a pony which she was to 
name. 


66 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“ I think I shall call it ‘ Key ’land Gloom ’ ! ” she 
said. “ It expresses the mind of all the officials 
here so well. I have hardly heard any one speak 
well of the place since I arrived.” 

“ Beastly hole ! ” said Di Churton loudly. “ I 
wish they had sent Bute to the West Coast, 
rather.” 

“ But that is a fever station ! ” 

“Yes, and it’s better pay and better leave. I 
shouldn’t mind Sierra Leone for a bit — a good 
many women have gone out.” 

“ I expect that will be my next job ! ” said 
Churton carelessly, as he set down his empty glass. 
“ It’s Paradise to this, anyway ! ” 

“ Oh, don’t talk of this ! I hate Key Island, and 
everything in it. Have a whiskey. Ally Sloper ? ” 
Di smiled at Mrs. Lewin to introduce the nick- 
name in public. Next time she would not take the 
trouble, while further off still she would say Ally 
without reserve. 

“ Better not, Ally ! ” said Chum, laughing. “ I 
shall have to carry you home if you begin so 
early.” 

“ That’s the worst of ceho ! ” said Captain Lewin 
apologetically, as he filled another tumbler. “ I 
say. Chum, what a sweet sight for the Administrator 
if he met us tottering home arm in arm ! ” 

“ Speak for yourself ! I’ve had soda.” 

“ Oh, the day is yet young ! ” said Major Churton. 
“ You may yet catch him up before tea, Mrs. 
Lewin ! ” 

The whiskey and soda was finished, and Ally’s 
throat asked for another by the time that luncheon 
was on the table. It was , a light meal, lightly 
relished, in a room that had more doors and win- 
dows than walls, and of which the heavy scented 
flowers and the strange fruits seemed as inevitably 


THE RAT-TRAP 


67 


a part as the iced drinks. Chum had put Mr. 
Gregory on one side, and was talking to Major 
Churton consciously. He was a man who had 
been far and done hard things in strange lands, 
and she read the lines of it in his face, from the 
great square forehead to the self-reliant chin. It 
was not by any means a Sir Galahad type of face — 
Tristram or Lancelot’s failings were more likely 
branded there ; but it was a soldier’s face for all 
that, and, despite the grey on his thick, clipped 
head, he looked what she had called him — a man 
who would be any woman’s master. Strength 
attracted Mrs. Lewin in whatever form she met 
with it ; she ignored the talk at the other end of 
the table, which had drifted inevitably to stamps, 
and gave her attention to her host. 

“ I am bent on mastering the intricacies of the 
sugar industry,” she confided to him, while behind 
her shoulder she could hear Ally comparing the 
many different shades of the Grenada and Barba- 
does star watermarked issues with Captain Gilderoy. 
“ Is there a factory within my reach ? ” 

“ Denver’s is the best. You know Denver, don’t 
you ? He was a great man in the old Company’s 
day, and is still on the Legislator. He has the 
largest plantation this side the Pass, and it joins 
your ground on one side. You ought to go over 
his factory, if you are really interested in native 
industries.” 

“ I wonder why you all find that so hard to 
understand ? Ever since I arrived I have been 
met on all sides with weeping and lamentation, and 
because I do not join in it I am counted a fraud. 
Key Island seems a very possible centre of interest 
to me for the three years that one is stationed 
here.” 

“ Wait till you have done your three years ! ” 


68 


THE RAT-TRAP 


said Bute Churton, as he handed her a cigarette. 
“ I have had twenty years’ foreign service, Mrs. 
Lewin, and I never wish to see a palm-tree again 
once I get quit of this. Give me solid English 
comfort ! ” 

“ Most people’s idea of solid English comfort, 
and ‘ Home, sweet home,’ consists in early Vic- 
torian furniture and all the meals an hour later on 
Sunday ! ” said Chum, “ It gives me indigestion.” 

“ Oh, but that is the ‘Home, sweet home ’ of one’s 
relations and old family friends — the sort of people 
that one only thinks about at Christmas and on 
their birthdays, in fact.” 

“ No !” said Chum, firmly; “I never remember 
people’s birthdays on principle. Sooner or later it 
is bound to degenerate into rudeness.” 

“ That reminds me that there is a birthday 
dinner party threatening us next week, anyhow. 
Old Arthur White met me in the club and told me 
he was sixty next Thursday. They have a feed on 
at the Harrac. Are you going ? ” 

“Yes, I believe so. Mr. Halton tells me that 
Harrac is one of the few houses where they know 
how to cook flying-fish, and you can trust to the 
Bridge being sound.” 

‘“Bridge ’is not my game, though I play it,” 
said the Major, with unconscious self-revelation. 
“ I like ‘ Poker ’ — one is on one’s own there. I 
prefer to trust to myself.” 

Chum looked at his line of chin and forehead, 
and smiled. For a minute she wondered what it 
would be like to have a husband who preferred to 
trust to himself. Ally so infinitely preferred to 
leave the final decision to her ! It sounded rather 
restful, and she glanced round half curiously at the 
man with whom she had linked her own fate — and 
power of making up her mind — to find him seriously 


THE RAT-TRAP 


69 


arguing with Captain Gilderoy that the Saint Lucia 
twopence halfpenny crown C. C. would rise in the 
market now that Queen’s heads were becoming 
scarce. It seemed he could really concentrate his 
thoughts and energies on a hobby, anyway. She 
caught the beautiful curve of his earnest face with 
simple artistic pleasure, and then found Mrs. 
Churton waiting to make a move from the table. 

“ Have you finished your smoke. Chum ? ” she 
said carelessly as she rose. Come into my room 
and freshen up. The men are good for more 
whiskey yet.” 

“ I hope not ! ” said Chum, with a half-resigned, 
half-protesting glance at Ally, which slid harm- 
lessly over his bent head and was lost among the 
shades of the Canadian two-cent map stamp. 

“ Didn’t I hear you talking about Denvers ? ” 
said Mrs. Gilderoy, as the three women entered 
Mrs. Churton’s room and drifted by mutual attrac- 
tion towards the looking-glass. “You heard how 
Trixie Denver behaved at our house the other 
night ? ” 

“Yes. Brissy — Captain Nugent — told me this 
morning through the telephone.” She thought of 
Ally’s prophecy, that Mrs. Gilderoy would make a 
story out of the incident, and waited with a smile 
somewhere hidden in her eyes. 

“ Oh, my dear, we had an awful time ! My good 
man took a lantern and went to find them at last, 
for they had been out there simply hours ! I told 
him he had better be careful how he turned it on — 
it was one of those electric things, you know. 
But he flashed it straight into the dark corners, and 
discovered them, to the mutual embarrassment of 
all three ! ” 

“ If some one doesn’t look after that girl she’ll 
come to grief ! ” ssid Mrs. Churton scornfully, 


70 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“ Since she has taken up with the Clayton woman 
she has been nothing but a camp follower.” 

“Who is Mrs. Clayton?” said Chum, with some 
curiosity, but more of a desire to shift the talk from 
a girl's name. She did not care for Miss Denver, 
who offended her taste and vision alike ; but Diana’s 
comments were nearly as jarring. 

“ They are A.S.C. people — they have quarters 
at Mitsinjovy. She’s the woman who was at Mrs. 
White’s the other night in green. You could not 
have missed seeing her ! ” 

“But I was not there. Does she dress so 
oddly?” 

“ She has one garment that every one speculates 
over. I fancy it began life as a nightgown, but she 
always wears it on unofficial evenings ! ” 

“ Be charitable, and put it down to the heat ! 
Ally would live in pyjamas, if I would let him. 
What is Mrs. Clayton’s garment like? Perhaps 
I might adapt my own nightdresses — with a 
sash ! ” 

“ Well,” said Mrs. Gilderoy thoughtfully, “ I don’t 
quite know how to describe it — do you, Di ? But 
if a bathing dress had a — a flirtation with a kimono, 
Eva Clayton’s garment might be the result ! I can’t 
see how it would be obtained otherwise. It is cer- 
tainly a hybrid ! ” 

Her eyes became mere slits of laughter, and Mrs. 
Lewin laughed too, with soft, full enjoyment. 

“ I shall look out for Mrs. Clayton,” said she. 
“ She is out at By-Jovey, is she ? I love that name 
for the Gunners’ Hill! ” 

“ Yes, and Trixie Denver goes over there half her 
time, and she and Mrs. Clayton sit on the steps of 
the Gunnery, — on the men’s knees, I believe, as 
soon as it gets dark.” 

“ I wonder they wait for that I ” said Diana 


THE RAT-TRAP 


71 

scornfully. “ What did Captain Gilderoy find 
Gurney doing with Trixie ? ” 

“ They were on the Jacksons’ stoep — their quar- 
ters join ours, you know. Wray says that Trixie 
was draped round Gurney’s neck, and he looked a 
perfect fool. We were furious, of course, as the girl 
was dining at our house, and in our care for the 
time, at least. Wray spoke to Gurney pretty 
plainly, and told him that unless he meant to marry 
her, he had better behave decently when she was 
with us.” 

“ It is her fault, not Gurney’s,” asserted Diana, 
sacrificing the woman to the man with the instinct 
of her class. For she was a man’s woman,” and 
would see no wrong in the sex. “ What did he 
say?” 

“ Oh, he wriggled out of it — said he couldn’t 
afford to marry. It is rather a pity for the girl, 
don’t you think ? ” Her eyes glanced at Chum in 
the looking-glass, where she was powdering her face. 
Mrs. Lewin stood behind her, her taller stature en- 
abling her to see over the little woman’s head, while 
she watched a trifle satirically to see Mrs. Gilderoy 
wet her finger with her lips and draw it across her 
lashes. 

“ Wretchedly large puffs you have, Di ! ” she said 
calmly. “ One’s eyes always catch the powder and 
give it away.” 

“ It’s not a thing I use at all,” Di Churton 
boasted, passing her handkerchief over her burnt 
and oozing skin. “ How are you getting on with 
your housekeeping, Chum ? I forgot to ask you.” 

“ Very well, thanks to Abdallah. I must confess 
he does more towards it than I.” 

“ Oh, you’ve got Abdallah ? I hate Arabs my- 
self. We’ve Malagasy and natives. Your servants 
sleep on the stoep, of course ? ” 


72 


THE RAT-TRAP 


I don’t know,” said Chum, laughing, “ It’s 
their own fault if they do. There are servants’ 
quarters.” 

“ I bet you five to one they sleep on the stoep, 
and bring their women there too ! ” 

“ That goes without saying ? ” said Mrs. Gilderoy, 
relinquishing the powder puff for a manicure case. 
Whatever were Diana Churton’s other drawbacks 
her hands were always immaculate. When we 
had Arabs I never could go out after the house was 
shut up, or I fell over them on the doorstep, and — 
and it embarrassed me ! ” 

“ Brutes ! ” said Chum disgustedly. Her eyes 
grew stormy, and a beautiful red colour came into 
her cheeks, that were usually rather pale. I will 
turn them out one and all, if that is the case.” 

“ Don’t be such a fool ! ” said Mrs. Churton scorn- 
fully. If they are good servants, keep them. 
What on earth does it matter what they do ? All 
the coloured people are alike — only animals.” 

She did not see that her broad judgment might 
apply to white races also, though later she went 
back to the stoep and her contemplation of Alaric 
Lewin. There was a certain grave dark beauty in 
Ally’s face which was deceptive, because at the 
moment he was merely rather sleepy ; but when the 
Lewins mounted their ponies again for the ride 
home in the short twilight, Mrs. Churton strolled 
over to Ally and laid her hand on the neck of his 
mount. 

“ If you can come up some time with your dupli- 
cates I’ll make a fair exchange with you, for some 
of those Sydney Views you have,” she said. Stamps 
are an innocent and mutual hobby. Mrs. Lewin did 
not collect. 

'' Thanks, awfully ! ” said Ally. The last whiskey 
that had been pressed on him at parting made him 


1 


THE RAT-TRAP 73 

feel that Di Churton was really a good sort of pal to 
have, and he moved the reins. . . . Di’s hands 

were cool and soft to touch. 

“Ally, Pm half-way home!” called Chum, 
laughing, as she steered Liscarton down the steep 
road. 

The man gathered up his reins and rode after his 
wife, his hand delicately conscious of a soft touch 
still. 

The woman turned back to the house, wondering 
if any one had seen. 

Nobody thought of the Arabs on the stoep — 
but even such courtship as theirs must have a be- 
ginning. 




1 


CHAPTER V 


« Man is fire, and Woman is tow, 

And the Devil comes and begins to blow ! ” 

— Old Saw, 

It is not exactly good for any man to be a con- 
densed force in his own person. An administrator 
represents a governor, who in his turn represents 
the Imperial Government and takes precedence of 
any stray royalty who may drift into his kingdom — 
provided he is not the figger-itself. A representa- 
tive power is very demoralising, because the reins of 
government are too concentrated — in spite of the 
Legislative Council. Six or seven thousand miles 
away is Westminster, and somebody who is called 
the Colonial Secretary, and who can write letters 
with censure in them ; but on the spot, in such rat- 
traps as Key Island, for instance, is an administrator, 
and this unit is for the nonce a king in his own 
country if he has the confidence of the men over 
him. The effect of this is seen when such transitory 
monarchs go home, and walk into the Colonial 
Office to demand an extra six months’ leave. Then 
they learn their real importance, which is so great 
that they cannot be spared, and are sent back to 
their tiny kingdoms not at all appreciative of the 
compliment that has been paid them. A small cor- 
ner of the British Empire is the very worst school 
in which to learn a sense of proportion ; but Evelyn 
Gregory had been put in power in many of such 

74 


THE RAT-TRAP 


75 


corners, and had learned to see things from a proper 
distance even while he lived in the midst of them. 
It was the more surprising, therefore, that he always 
impregnated himself with his kingdom of the 
moment, and that particular spot (whether it were 
many thousand square miles in the centre of Africa 
or Northern India, or only the limited area of Key 
Island) was the problem which absorbed all his 
faculties until he had made himself its master. The 
raging energies of the man demanded an object on 
which to expend themselves in such a way, and had 
been his quality of success throughout his turbulent 
career. It was a little hard on Alaric Lewin, who 
was cast in another mould, that he should have been 
appointed under a man who was a glutton for work, 
and suffer as an ineffectual tool. But the Colonial 
Office is no respecter of individualities. 

There was a meeting of the Executive Council on 
the morning ot the Arthur White’s dinner ; it was a 
small body, consisting of the Attorney-General him- 
self, Bute Churton as officer in command of the 
forces, and the Colonial Treasurer, besides the 
Administrator. Gregory mounted his pony and 
rode down into town thinking of his plans and the 
future of Key Island, rather than of any social 
function, though he was to be one of the guests at 
the Harrac. He was not a dreamer, but his restless 
brains built fortresses where other men’s built castles 
in the air, and he projected schemes for the Empire 
in place of personal ambitions. The little streets 
opened out before him and revealed the ring of the 
bay and the two great rocks guarding the harbour 
entrance, and the Administrator’s keen sleepless 
eyes stared out through them as a lion’s through the 
bars of his cage. With the smell of the sunshine 
and the tropic life in his nostrils he jogged easily 
along, mechanically raising his hand to his helmet 


76 


THE RAT-TRAP 


if any one saluted him, but seeing more of the sand- 
box and eucalyptus trees in the little central square 
where the band played, than of the people he 
passed. 

If France developed the resources of Madagascar 
now, as this new interest in the Hovas seemed to 
indicate, that meant a spur in her trade, and more 
traffic with Africa. Nothing would have pleased 
Evelyn Gregory more than the least excuse for a 
quarrel if only he could have laid greedy hands 
on a portion of his huge neighbour. He knew 
Madagascar and her capabilities, — he held theories 
about the ore that he chafed to see neglected, 
— and he coveted her for his Government, who 
already found Key Island more trouble than she 
was worth. To turn his guns on the French ships 
as they came up the Channel, and be the base of 
British operations with the safe harbour and huge 
coaling stations, would have fed his fighting in- 
stincts and ambitions alike. He glanced at Tso- 
fotra, the left gate and the more accessible of the 
two, where the guns could be dragged up somehow 
in case of hard necessity; and he felt a secret 
attraction towards those great sentinels, rising bare 
and grim to over two thousand feet above his 
harbour. 

. . . A woman passed him, riding up towards 

Government House, the way he had come. He 
forgot the Lewins’ bungalow for the minute, and 
half- wondered where she was going. She bowed, 
and he saluted, before he remembered that she was 
Mrs. Lewin, the pretty wife of his incapable A.D.C., 
who had better have been the boy than the girl. 
But her face only brought a memory of her husband 
to his mind, and made his harsh features a trifle less 
ingratiating than usual. 

Why on earth had they sent him such a show 


THE RAT-TRAP 


77 


article as Lewin for the work he had before him ! 
He wanted brains and energies, not muscles and 
trained animal courage — a man, not only a soldier. 
Gregory knew that as yet he had not his adminis- 
tration in the iron grip in which he would hold it 
by-and-by, and before casting a loving eye round 
the Channel, — Madagascar on one side, and Mozam- 
bique on the other, — he must make Key Island his 
own. The natives were cowed with the presence 
of the troops, but the root of the mischief was there 
still, and he had not yet probed down to it. He 
wanted certain things done, too, by the Home 
Government — the factories encouraged and en- 
larged, for he knew the value of sweating the devil 
out of his people, and minor industries, such as 
timber growing, giving a helping hand ; there were 
memoranda to make, reports to send back to Eng- 
land, a mass of clerical work to get through before 
Halton was recalled, — and Captain Lewin was the 
best polo player that the club could get on to their 
faulty ground, and in constant demand for tennis 
and gymkana. Truly the fates were unpropitious 
for both men. 

Chum had ridden on in the sunshine, thinking as 
hard as Gregory. He would be at the Arthur 
White's to-night, and he would talk of tennis and 
cricket matches to the best of his ability to the 
woman assigned him for dinner party, probably 
playing the part of courteous listener, if only she 
would do the talking — Mrs. Lewin was beginning 
to know his methods ; and then, once the ladies had 
gone, he would draw nearer to the man who could 
really interest him, and talk of the island and the 
life there that woke him to more than surface 
attention, — but that man would not be Ally ! No 
schooling would push Ally into the place she 
wanted him to take after her back was turned, and 


78 


THE RAT-TRAP 


she herself was helpless. With feminine philosophy 
she dressed carefully that night, not for the Admin- 
istrator, but because Chum never despised the 
advantage of facing the world fortified by being 
perfectly turned out. She was more successful than 
usual over her unruly hair, and the pretty ripples lay 
round her flat ears — not over them, for Ally’s warn- 
ing ! — and were massed down into the nape of her 
neck as if they loved her, and were glad to frame 
her beauty. She looked at the slope of her neck 
and the warm, white round of her shoulder, and 
because she was respectful of her Creator’s work, 
she fastened a big, black velvet rose to the shoulder- 
strap, where its artificial duskiness kissed the reality 
of her own seductive dimples. More than one man 
found himself vaguely conscious of that false flower 
before the dinner was over, and thought stealthily 
of Captain Lewin’s domestic bliss. Leoline was 
not exactly a woman whose influence was towards 
goodness, whatever she might be in herself. For 
though she had no vice of her own, she suggested 
all of them in turn to coarser and more masculine 
minds. 

The Arthur Whites had placed their table well, 
and this is a great gift in Key Island, where guests 
are easily bored through constantly meeting each 
other. The host and hostess did not sit at either 
end of their square table, but because one side 
would accommodate almost as many as another they 
had a way of disposing themselves among their 
guests, and placing two instead of one at either end. 
It broke the usual solemn monotony of dinners, 
and accommodated a larger number. Thus it hap- 
pened that Mrs. Lewin, who had been taken in by 
Captain Gilderoy, found that she was next the end 
of the table where hor host should ordinarily have 
sat, but round the corner were the Administrator 


THE RAT-TRAP 


79 


and Mrs. White. To sit next to Mr. Gregory was 
nothing, for what attention he had to give was Mrs. 
White’s. Chum smiled upon the garrison adjutant, 
and enjoyed herself with a continuation of the 
philosophy that had dressed her for conquest. 
Across the table she could see a woman, who was a 
stranger to her, neglecting her rightful partner. 
Major Churton, and talking at the Administrator 
through the medium of a projected water scheme 
in which she was not really interested, and noted her 
failure with as much sympathy as amusement. 
After all, they had all had their water-scheme trial, 
and failed also ! 

“ Who is Major Churton’s partner ? ” she said 
idly to Gilderoy, under the buzz of the conversa- 
tion round them. 

“ That is Mrs. Clayton of Mitsinjovy fame ! ” he 
answered. “ They have only been out a month or 
so longer than you, and she was ill with fever at 
first, so it took some time for her questionable at- 
tractions to dawn on us.” 

(“ Then she does not know Mr. Gregory, and 
that is why she is wasting her energies on the water 
scheme ! ” thought Chum.) Aloud she said cau- 
tiously, “ Do you know her ? ” 

“ Not personally, I am thankful to say, but I have 
a smiling acquaintance with her. I have to pass 
their house on my way down to town and to the 
garrison office every morning, and she is generally 
showing her ankles for my benefit on the stoep. I 
always smile, because as she has taken the trouble 
to get into her hammock, presumably on my ac- 
count, it would be unkind not to do so.” 

Mrs. Lewin looked at his rather rugged face, and 
found it curiously deceptive. For his eyes were 
quite friendly, and when he spoke in that pleasant 
tone it was difficult to realise his sneering insinua- 


So 


THE RAT-TRAP 


tions about the lady sitting opposite, who was even 
now casting glances in his direction. 

“ What sort of acquaintance did you say you 
had ? ” she asked, laughing. 

“Just a smiling .one. Don’t you know that 
stage ? I should say it was very inadvisable to go 
further and fare worse with the O.C.T.’s dinner 
partner ! ” 

“ Now I come to think of it I have had that de- 
gree of intimacy with people myself. It is rather 
fascinating, because though one can’t bow it is not 
in human nature not to recognise a familiar face in 
some way that evades the social law. But why 
should you judge Mrs. Clayton by her ankles ? ” 

He shrugged his shoulders, and the dog-smile 
marred his face for a moment. “ If a woman gives 
me such a flagrant invitation, what am I to think ? 
They have not begun entertaining yet, but if you 
would rather wait and judge them by their tennis- 
cake and Bridge-markers pray do so. For me, I 
have my private opinion.” 

“ Is that the usual test out here — how one enter- 
tains ? I am still on my probation then, because 
we have no courts, and have not started Bridge. 
Ally and I only give whiskey-and-soda dinners at 
present.” 

“ Well, that is excellent, or sounds so ! ” he re- 
torted, turning to look at her more closely. Cap- 
tain Gilderoy always retained his air of being a 
gentleman whatever he said or did, but he was also, 
at times, a man — the black rose that Chum was 
wearing was on his side, not the Administrator’s, 
and he was well content with his lot, so much so 
that when Diana Churton loudly claimed his atten- 
tion to pronounce judgment on a short issue of 
Victorian stamps, he turned reluctantly to answer, 
leaving Mrs. Lewin for the moment unmonopolised. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


8i 


The dinner was practically over, but there was 
just that pause of desultory talk before Mrs. White 
rose that kept the men from their cigarettes — in 
this house the women were, officially, not supposed 
to smoke — and Chum knew that her hostess would 
look at her in a minute, and altered her attitude to 
one of more alertness ; but she had a school-girl 
trick of slipping off her shoes under the dinner- 
table, and for the minute the little right-hand slipper 
was missing. 

She was feeling about for it with a distressed silk 
foot, when an inspiration flashed into her head, fill- 
ing her eyes with brilliant laughter. The Adminis- 
trator was not at the moment occupied any more 
than herself ; he was leaning back in his chair, his 
eyes for once cast down, his massive face inwardly 
absorbed, but one nervous hand playing with the 
fruit knife betraying the active, working brain. 
Mrs. Lewin looked at him . . . were they all 

wrong ? Had Mrs. Clayton and the water scheme 
failed to arrest his attention for exactly the same 
reason that her own tentative efforts had not suc- 
ceeded — that they had all appealed to the wrong 
side of the man? How would audacity do in- 
stead ? . . . 

She leaned forward, her face flushed with her own 
uncertain daring, her eyes still full of laughter, half 
excited, half amused at the experiment, and spoke 
hurriedly under her breath. 

“ Mr. Gregory, will you try and find my shoe for 
me? ” 

The hand that played with the fruit knife stopped 
as if by clockwork, and the Administrator raised 
his hard eyes and looked full into hers in his amaze- 
ment. A half-smile softened his own lips in answer 
to her apologetic dimples. 

“ I beg your pardon, Mrs. Lewin ? ” 


82 


THE RAT-TRAP 


My shoe ! ” said Chum with apparent impa- 
tience. “ I have a foolish habit of slipping them 
off at meals and I’ve lost one, and Mrs. White 
will look at me and rise in a minute, and I can’t 
go. Do feel for it ! It must be somewhere near 
you.” 

His face flushed dark red with suppressed laugh- 
ter, as, more awake to the situation than she had 
ever known him, he sat back and felt cautiously 
about in the unseen space of floor. A minute later 
he had really found it, and caught it between his 
feet. The little soft satin thing felt utterly alien and 
feminine, and yielded to the pressure of his feet, 
yet just because it was so empty it suggested to his 
senses the foot that would fill it. He pushed it 
carefully towards Mrs. Lewin, his eyes still fixed 
upon her. 

“ Have you found it?” she said eagerly, without 
a trace of consciousness in her charming face. 

Thank you so much ! . . . Yes, I have 

it ! . . . That’s all right ! ” 

He had inevitably touched the little unslippered 
foot in its silk stocking, but she did not seem to be 
aware of the fact as he was. Mrs. White had risen, 
and Mrs. Lewin rose too*, with one brilliant smile 
of thanks at him — nothing more. The Adminis- 
trator was nearest to the door ; he got out of his 
seat and held it for the ladies, looking down on 
them from his unusual height as they passed, — 
Mrs. Arthur White in dull white silk, a comfortable, 
portly presence — Mrs. Clayton, still trying to attract 
attention with a jingle of bangles, but his eyes were 
blank; — Diana Churton, hard and metallic and 
burnt to the collar-line, beneath which her bare 
neck was startlingly fair ; — then a tall woman with 
a well-groomed head, and a black velvet rose nes- 
tling against the rich whiteness of her skin. He 


THE RAT-TRAP 


83 


scanned her as keenly as though he saw her for the 
first time, and he felt sure she did not notice it as 
she went calmly by, so softly unconscious of him 
that she was as easily graceful as though no strong 
masculine eyes were searching her from the crown 
of her head to the little foot that had a new mean- 
ing to him. 

Mr. Gregory held the door until the last silk 
skirts had swept into the further room. Then he 
went back to his seat and sat down, and the talk 
buzzed round him of sugar works and hemp crops, 
and mixtures of races in Key Island, while a few 
men talked promotion and the chances of the 
army. Between his feet, as he sat there dis- 
cussing his favourite topics, he could still feel 
the strange yielding softness of a little satin 
slipper. . . . 

As Mrs. Lewin entered the drawing-room the 
coffee came in from the servants’ quarters. She sat 
down in the nearest chair, which happened to be 
beside a little table where a fancy mirror lay with 
some other trifles. The other women had crossed 
over to the coffee- tray; Chum took up the glass 
deliberately, and looked at herself ; first on this side 
and then on that. The inspection was entirely 
satisfactory. 

She laid down the mirror, and smiled as if dis- 
tinctly amused. For it had occurred to her that 
they had all been fools and had wasted much valu- 
able time, and when women are fools the men will 
not help them out of their folly. 

‘‘ He is only a man ! ” she said a little contemptu- 
ously, going back to her first comment. 

By the time the men came into the drawing- 
room, most of the women had drifted out on to the 
stoep, but the two Bridge tables were placed and 
waiting, and the Bridge players sat down to the 


84 


THE RAT-TRAP 


serious business of their evening, while Hamilton 
Gurney of the Wessex wheeled the piano out into 
the cool darkness and fortified by ceho began to 
sing. He had that gift of the gods a real tenor 
voice, and when he sang he was suddenly trans- 
formed from an ordinary young man in a Line 
Regiment to a satellite of the Angel Israfil, with 
power over his fellow-creatures to wring their 
hearts and bring tears into their eyes. It is a 
little pitiful of human nature that intense pleasure 
always shows itself most simply in weeping; for 
when the senior sub. of the Wessex had dropped 
his last soft note into a listening silence most 
of his hearers had uncomfortable lumps in their 
throats, and believed that it was a foretaste of 
Heaven. 

Mrs. Lewin had seated herself in a basket-chair 
as far from other listeners as she could, for she was 
selfish over music, and felt inclined to turn and 
rend any one who interrupted her enjoyment of it. 
It represented the only violent emotion that she had 
really experienced, and she objected to facing the 
public with quivering nerves. To-night she was to 
be more than usually harrowed because Mr. Gurney, 
in a fit of sentimentalism engendered by her own 
black rose, had chosen a song with her name inter- 
woven — a song that Blumenthal loved best of all he 
wrote, and which seems as if the accompaniment 
were born of the air. It is called “ Leoline,” but 
Chum missed the reference to herself as completely 
as she lost sight of the pink-and-white young man 
at the piano who was casting glances at her shadowy 
corner. Hamilton Gurney did not realise that he 
was merely the vehicle of his own gift, and there- 
fore he made the mistake of accepting the attention 
he knew he received not only as for his voice, but 
for his very unimportant self. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


85 


“ One night we sat below the porch 
And out in that warm air, 

A firefly, like a dying star. 

Fell tangled in her hair ; 

But I kissed him lightly off again 
And he fluttered up the vine. 

And died into the darkness 
For the love of Leoline ! ” 

Mrs. Lewin had drifted away into a sea of pain, 
as the rich notes played over her nerves. Had she 
thought about him she would have been positive 
that the Administrator was playing Bridge at Major 
Churton’s table, but she was not thinking of him, nor 
did she realise until long after the song was over 
that he was standing near her, a tall dark shadow 
behind her chair, looking with very far-seeing eyes 
from Mr. Gurney’s obvious application of his song 
to Mrs. Lewin’s equal ignoring of it. 

“We sang our songs together. 

Till the stars shook in the skies ; 

We spoke — we spoke of common things — 

But the tears were in our eyes! 

And my hand I know it trembled 

To each light warm touch of thine . . , 

Yet we are friends, and only friends, 

My lost love, Leoline ! ” 

“ That’s her name, eh I ” said Mr. Gregory, with 
some dry amusement. “ And that young fool is 
trying to catch her attention to the fact. It’s a pity 
that he can’t realise his position of a Man behind a 
Voice.” 

Chum moved her head restlessly, conscious that 
her heart was beating thickly as only the slow rich 
notes ever made it beat. It frightened her to have 
even the suspicion of an emotion she could not con- 
trol, and this was certainly a thing that seemed 
apart from her. Life had been most comfortably 
manageable so far. 


86 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“ I wonder what her husband calls her ? ” mused 
the Administrator, his eyes absently fixed on the 
point of a little satin slipper, showing beneath the 
frills of her skirt. “ Leoline — Lena — Leo — she is 
not a woman to lack a pet name, for all her 
inches ! ” 

Chum ! ” said Captain Lewin, strolling across 
the stoep with his hands in his pockets. “ Come 
in and drink Mr. White’s health — there’s ceho 
going ! ” 

And a dozen voices seemed to echo his words 
from the lighted windows — “ Chum, are you out 
there ? ” “ Chum — excuse me, Mrs. Lewin, it’s 

so catching ! — but do come in.” “ Come along, 
Chum ! ” 

“ At all events,” said the Administrator, with 
an ugly smile, “ that name is not sacred to one 
person ! ” 


CHAPTER VI 


“ La femme qui n’a que son mari est une femme deserte.” — 
French Proverb. 

Behind the Lewins’ bungalow the rich hillside 
ran up yellow with cane, for their garden joined the 
boundaries of Mr. Denver’s estate, and save for a 
fringe of logwood and guava the sugar spread all 
about his many acres. If Mrs. Lewin crossed the 
gravel paths among the rose trees, and pushed her 
way through a tangle of debatable ground, she 
found herself out among the waving blades that rose 
above her height and almost kissed over her head. 
She had an insistent love of the early morning, 
when the languid air was at least cooled with the 
dawn, and full of faint scent ; and when her husband 
was still sleeping off the healthy effects of two hours’ 
hard tennis, she would get up and go out, whereby 
she gained a very irradicable impression of the 
sugar industry in all its phases, from the flat-footed 
natives strolling up to work, to the grinding and 
heaving of the sugar factories, for she strayed as far 
as the actual buildings where it was carried on, and 
came back to breakfast with an English appetite, 
and a Key Island thirst. Ally called it restlessness. 

On the morning after the Whites’ dinner, the 
spirit woke her early. She rose and dressed, insist- 
ing on a bath at an hour which confirmed the 
Arabs’ impression of British insanity, and went out 

87 


88 


THE RAT-TRAP 


into the blue day. There were clouds over Maitso, 
but the gracious morning was very hushed and 
calm. Chum threaded the garden, and invaded the 
brushwood beyond, where the blue-gum and 
eucalyptus trees marked the boundary of her own 
territory, and the dew lay heavy on her white 
skirts. A meerkat jumped across her feet, as she 
pushed out into the fields of cane, and then the 
slope of the mountain rose before her, pure green 
with sugar, a delight to look upon. This land be- 
longed to Mr. James Denver, the father of the 
young lady whose name was connected in every 
Key Island mouth with Hamilton Gurney’s, and the 
ugly chimneys of his factory rose half-way up the 
hill, above the long, grey sugar works. The men 
had gone to their labour half-an-hour since, and 
Mrs. Lewin pushed her way boldly in between the 
ridges where the cane grew, and sauntered along, 
feeling that life was very good, and that Earth smelt 
like Heaven, as indeed it did if Heaven is a combi- 
nation of hothouse and conservatory. In a land 
where every other tree flowers, and where gardenias 
riot in the hedges, it seems as if the essence of all 
the honey that was ever gathered was resolved back 
into its original elements within one’s immediate 
surroundings. 

Last night’s success was really the satin lining to 
Mrs. Lewin’s mood, for there is no factor so con- 
ducive to physical pleasure as a gentle mental stim- 
ulant. She had made the worn-out discovery that 
a man is best reached through his emotions, and 
that his reason is a secondary line of attack, and it 
amused her. But she was really not thinking of the 
object of her success so much as generalising over 
the frailty of his sex, when suddenly she saw him 
coming towards her. 

A swell of ground, and a cross track through the 


THE RAT-TRAP 


89 


cane, had hidden the Administrator until they were 
only a few yards distant from each other. Without 
a suspicion of his nearness, any more than she had 
been when Gurney sang. Chum came through the 
dancing morning, while the great green cane bowed 
over her head and made a royal avenue for her as 
she passed, as of sunshine dripping through clear 
emeralds — so liquid yellow was the light through 
the blades. She had grown to love the cane, from 
the light emphatic patches of it in distance, to the 
near waving blades so suggestive of sweet taste in 
their very colour. There was a little Nigger song 
that Hamilton Gurney sang in a voice as luscious as 
the sugar ; she hummed it as she passed — 

“ All the world am singing this refrain — 

Sweeter than the sugar from the cane ! . . . 

You are the sweetest girl around. 

Just the sweetest girl I know ” 

She broke off to throw up her head and catch an- 
other footstep for the first time, then sauntered on 
to meet it with the last line — 

« And the sugar — sugar — sugar — from the cane ! ” 

“ Good-morning, Mr. Gregory ! ” 

“ Good-morning, Mrs. Lewin ! ” 

They were conscious eyes this time, that looked 
down in their penetration at every feminine attrac- 
tion presented to him. The secretary’s wife stood 
the inspection with the unconscious serenity of last 
night. 

“ How very unofficial of you to be out like this ! 
One dispenses with outriders and a flourish of 
trumpets in Key Island, but one does expect to 
think of the Administrator breakfasting in languid 
dignity while other people are already abroad ! ” 


90 


THE RAT-TRAP 


He made a wry face. “We are very unofficial 
here, thank Heaven ! It is one of the few advan- 
tages of our diminutiveness. Where are you going, 
to Denver’s ? ” 

“No, I was trespassing on his ground, merely for 
a stroll.” 

“ You have seen the factory?” 

“ Not yet, though I have ventured as far as the 
door.” 

“ Come along,” he said unceremoniously. “ It is 
just up the hill — I’ll take you round.” 

Mrs. Lewin smiled inwardly, and picking up her 
spotless skirts stepped into the next furrow. Here 
the cane had been cut, but a little further on the 
golden green blades drove them into the draining 
ditch until they struck the road which cut the field 
in two. There were rough tram-lines running 
along it, and a small engine was hauling the trucks 
up and down the hillside to the factory. Gregory 
stopped the man who was just starting the load, and 
there was a brief colloquy. Then he turned to the 
last truck, which, unlike its fellows, was not open to 
the sky and loaded with the cane, but resembled a 
waggon without ends, and had rough seats running 
down each side of it. This was the riding truck, 
and throwing a piece of matting over a seat he put 
his hand under Mrs. Lewin’s arm and lifted rather 
than helped her in, for the step was steep. In the 
midst of her amused excitement she was conscious 
of his unceremonious strength, and with the in- 
stinctive feminine compliment to it her own weak- 
ness and helplessness seemed suddenly to have 
increased. 

“We shall have time to go round before that 
breakfast you insist on my eating in my official 
capacity,” he said, and his lips smiled, while his lid- 
less eyes never narrowed from their intense stare at 


THE RAT-TRAP 


91 


her. It began to give her a sense of weariness, a 
feeling that he had never ceased looking at her 
since the night before, when he was first conscious 
of her presence. Perhaps he had been doing it in 
his own mind all the night. 

The movement of the trucks was surprisingly 
smooth, but they were all worked on springs. 
They swept up through the furrowed fields, and 
came to a clinking standstill before the gaping 
mouth of the factory. It seemed to Mrs. Lewin a 
zinc building with a whirr of machinery inside too 
large for its frail shell, and the impression increased, 
rather than otherwise, when she entered. All the 
world was suddenly transformed to sugar — the rich 
smell of it was in the air, the dark stream of it fall- 
ing from the pipes to the big teaches and tfie 
cooler, the very floor sticky with it, so that she 
stepped aside from the pools of hot liquid. After 
the increasing glare outside the dark of the place 
was grateful, and through the dark were visible 
bronzed forms, stripped and dripping with sweat, 
guiding the machinery, shovelling down the waste 
for fuel, and chopping at the congealed masses of 
tlie later stages of the sugar with some pronged 
instrument. There was labour on every hand, and 
the restless tide of human life seemed gathered into 
an ordered groove of industry. 

Gregory led his companion up steep ladders and 
over wet stones without consideration for her fresh 
skirts, explaining the process as they went on. It 
was wonderful how his forceful whispers carried 
through the whirr of the flying wheels, and he took 
it off-handedly for granted that Mrs. Lewin would 
miss no detail on account of her clothes. He knew 
the work as well as its owner, and dipped the test- 
ing-tube into the refining sugar to show her how 
tlie lime had purified the dirty liqueur to a pure gold 


92 


THE RAT-TRAP 


like honey. Further on, at the end of the building, 
were the great vats where rum was fermenting, and 
an odour like rich wine rose in Chum’s nostrils as 
he lifted the lid and showed her the frothy, muddy 
contents. 

“ Dip in your finger — it’s warm,” he said, stirring 
it with his own. Mrs. Lewin, balancing on a pre- 
carious plank, with her dainty skirts held high, was 
conscious of an inward shudder as her long white 
hand touched the strong-smelling stuff, and yet it 
never occurred to her to disobey, or so much as 
enter a protest. 

“ Is this what the natives drink f ” she said, in 
mild surprise. 

“ Yes — by and by, when it’s cleared. Filthy 
stuff! ” he said shortly. “ It’s better than hemp, 
though. Can you get down? Better let me lift 
you ” 

But she laid her cool hands in his and jumped, 
landing safely at his side, and again conscious of 
his physical as well as mental power. Then the 
sight-seeing was over, and he led the way out by 
another door and round to the waiting trucks to 
ride back. Here Gregory paused a minute, and 
looked over the waving crops and the flourishing 
scene of labour with an expression that Mrs. Lewin 
did not at the moment understand. When he had 
come to Key Island the sugar-planters were sullen 
and depressed ; they wanted encouragement from 
the Home Government, and they regarded the 
change of administration in Key Island as no bene- 
fit to themselves. The old regime had been a bad 
one, and had ended in disaster ; but they knew at 
least what they had to expect, and the first “ spring 
cleaning ” of the Imperial Government had alarmed 
them with grave prognostications for the future of 
the island. Gregory had already m^de them change 


THE RAT-TRAP 


93 


their opinions during the short time he had been in 
possession. He had thrown himself heart and soul 
into the industries of the island, and so assured the 
planters that Port Victoria would not be merely a 
coaling-station. Because he was in earnest he 
gained their confidence, and worked with them to 
make the land prosperous again. The humming 
factories were a proof of his success ; he saw his 
schemes fulfilling themselves actually before him, 
and his hard eyes brightened with the strange look 
over which Mrs. Lewin pondered all the way home. 
It was, in a degree, the same look that makes a 
young mother most ineffably, justifiably proud — the 
look that is but a reflex of God’s when. His work 
spread before Him, He saw that it was very good. 
For there is no joy like the joy of creation. 

“ What is he thinking about ? ” said Leoline 
Lewin to herself, with awakened interest, her eyes 
on the Administrator’s reserved face. 

Denver employs six hundred on his estate 
alone,” was all Gregory remarked aloud. “ I wish 
all the planters took as many.” 

Why?” 

“ If there were no idlers, there would be less like- 
lihood of a rising. When the Key’landers begin to 
sit in the gutter and jaw through the Miroro (sleep 
hour) in a snarly sing-song, then look out. It be- 
gan that way last time.” 

“ Ah ! — Mr. Gregory, what would happen if you 
burnt the hemp crops ? ” 

“ I don’t know.” But he looked at her in some 
surprise for the audacity of her question. It had 
been tacitly understood that such an extreme 
measure might be attempted by this Administrator 
only ; but no one had even broached such a subject 
to himself. Gregory thought of the unlikelihood of 
his secretary even speculating on such an idea, and 


94 


THE RAT-TRAP 


smiled even more broadly. Decidedly this girl 
ought to have been the boy ! 

“ It might bring matters to a head, and I don’t 
know that I should be sorry,” he admitted after a 
moment. “ There is a lot of underhand discontent, 
and the population is like a silly child who over- 
estimates its own importance and power to be 
naughty. A sharp lesson might clear the air — 
see?” 

It is wonderful how indiscreet men will be to a 
pretty woman. Mrs. Lewin’knew how to listen; 
also as Evelyn Gregory talked he could see himself 
reflected in the big pupils of her eyes, and his 
mental attitude reflected in the equally receptive 
calibre of her mind. He was not very used to 
sympathy in his schemes, because he rarely con- 
fided them to any one, and he fancied Mrs. Lewin 
the more exceptional on this account, whereas she 
was merely more adroit in drawing him on. She 
was, besides, really interested, and he saw that, and 
saw also that she was a woman, which touched his 
senses, and ended by driving the more serious side 
of the conversation out of his head. For Chum, 
with a flash of genius, dropped the political stand- 
point at her own gate, and held out her hand with 
a merely social attractiveness. 

“ My husband will be ravenous, and I shall get 
scolded,” she said, with a smile in the changing 
colours of her eyes. “ But I was very interested — 
it was your fault ! ” 

The curve of her lips was not a pout, but Mr. 
Gregory suddenly saw himself as a successful rival 
to Captain Lewin as regarded his wife’s time — the 
masculine cause of a scolding too, for a more subtle 
suggestion than a late breakfast lay in the words. 
He smiled a little also, and the blood beat with a 
small pleased triumph in the hand that held hers. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


95 


“ He must like me, if he is to like Ally ! ” said 
Chum to herself in vague excuse, as she went into 
her room to change her soiled skirt and shoes. 
“ And that is the only way to attract him, as yet. 
. . . What a harsh, ugly face he has! — Been 

waiting long. Ally ? ” 

Fresh from her encounter with the Administrator, 
her husband’s good looks struck her with a sudden 
pride in possession. She paused behind his chair, 
and laying her hands on his shoulders bent down to 
kiss him and talk tender nonsense. 

“ Dear thing 1 how nice it looks in its beautiful 
white clothes ! ” she* said softly, her arm round the 
broad shoulders under the cool linen coat. 

“ Where have you been, old girl ? ” Ally re- 
turned, pushing his chair back from the table to 
return the caress heartily. I’ve been dressed half- 
an-hour.” 

“ Up to Denver’s Works, and all round them with 
— who do you think ? Three guesses ! ” 

« Halton I ” 

** Wrong ! — Silly boy I as if I didn’t love my 
beautiful husband better than hundreds of Mr. 
Haltons I ” 

“ I know you do I — I should think it very bad 
taste if you didn’t,” said Ally, calmly. “ Brissy, 
then ? ” 

“ No, — why, he is orderly officer this week ! ” 

“ Which is all that lies between me and the 
Divorce Court evidently ! Well, I don’t think you 
have another mash. Chum — unless it’s Churton ? ” 

“ All wrong. I fly at higher game. Now 
then ! ” 

“ Not ” 

“ The Administrator I ” 

Ally whistled. “ You don’t say so ! ” he said 
“ How the deuce did it happen ? ” 


96 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“ He met me trespassing on the estate and 
asked me to go. Now I think of it, he never said 
why he was there, but he seemed like a second 
owner.” 

“ Oh, he is well in with all the Planters. 
Well ? ” 

“ He asked me to go, as I say, and I went. 
Listen, Ally ” — and she left him and walked round 
to her end of the table — “ he became almost con- 
fiding about the natives. I shall know his schemes 
yet, and then I can tell you, and knowledge is 
power ! He will think you have divined his mind.” 

“ Catch me divining his mind ! It would be like 
groping in a fusty roomful of blue-books ! Oh, by 
the way. Chum, Gurney wants to sell that grey 
pony of his — I think we might as well have an- 
other.” 

“ No, but do listen. Ally ! At present the native 
question is so hopeless because of the mixed races 
and opposing interests, but if a good breed pre- 
dominated — the Hovas, for instance — and we could 
get them to come over and leaven the lump ” 

A big hard-backed beetle had floundered on to 
the table right in front of Alaric’s plate, and in- 
stinctively he had set his glass of iced water on it. 
The glass being nearly empty the beetle was walk- 
ing away with it, and with Alaric’s attention at the 
same time. Chum stopped abruptly. 

“ You don’t care ! ” she said, with a sudden blank 
feeling upon her. You are much more interested 
in playing schoolboy tricks ! ” 

“ I beg your pardon, really ! But I’m so sick of 
Gregory’s importation and emigration schemes.” 
Ally’s eyes were affectionate and apologetic too. 
He looked like a big dog accustomed to petting, 
and very unaccustomed to being chidden. ‘‘ I say, 
Chum, do look at this fellow though ! The other 


THE RAT-TRAP 


97 


night at mess we got a lot, — every one of us had a 
beetle, and laid odds as to whose would fly off 
first. You know if you turn them on their backs, 
ten to one they can’t get up, and if you even touch 
them ” 

But now it was Chum’s attention which had 
wandered, nor was she very concerned with the 
intellectual pursuits of the Wessex mess. She felt 
that the racing of hard-backed beetles was the limit 
of their capacity: and then reproached herself for 
self-conscious superiority. The question of Key 
Island and its possible improvements dropped to 
pieces, nor was it revived successfully on other 
occasions. But Captain Alaric Lewin escaped 
from work early that day, and rode out to Maitso 
with his wife, where from four o’clock to six they 
played at Go-one-better, which is a very instructive 
game needing nothing but five handkerchiefs and 
a Panama hat, and affords some amusement if you 
cannot play tennis. The grass was wet, but they 
laughed themselves thirsty over Go-one-better, and 
then sat on the stoep of the mess and drank ceho, 
and when the Administrator’s A.D.C. and Mrs. 
Lewin left. Ally was conscious of no flaw in his 
domestic bliss. Key Island was a beastly hole, and 
he must really look up all the influence he could to 
get a decent Station — for Chum’s sake, of course — 
but in the meantime one could have a very pleasant 
time if there were people like the Churtons and old 
Bristles round. To-morrow they would play Polo 
of sorts — Gurney must learn not to cross, though ! — 
and Wednesday was gymkana. If only he had been 
more of an A.D.C. and less of a secretary, even work 
would not have been so irksome. But the Admin- 
istrator chafed at entertainments, and when he was 
forced into some formality at Government House 
he usually managed to be summoned away, and left 


98 


THE RAT-TRAP 


Halton to represent him and Mrs. White to enter- 
tain. It was a saying in Key Island that he paid 
the Town Wardens of Port Albert and China Town 
an extra stipend to telephone for him on such 
occasions, and only when a Government House 
dinner was unavoidable did Mr. Gregory appear as 
a host. Since Ally had been out there had been 
no entertainment at Government House, and his 
social gifts were wasted. It would have been dull 
enough, no doubt, but still something to do, he 
thought, and better than all clerical work, and he 
yawned over the morrow’s monotony as he laid his 
handsome, empty head on the pillow that night. 

What Mrs. Lewin thought of the last twenty-four 
hours’ experiences she no longer tried to make him 
understand. 


CHAPTER VII 


“ In vino veritas .” — Latin Proverb. 

The way of the Army woman is hard. She 
starts as a nice girl, with a weakness for red cloth 
and jingles ; but then she marries, and discovers, 
amongst other shocks, what lies beneath the red 
cloth. Her husband may still be her ideal hero to 
her, or he may be merely the figure-head of a 
position in which she gets plenty of attention and 
some amusement ; but his profession will inevitably 
take her into desert places of the earth where she 
samples discomfort until the iron enters into her 
domestic soul. If it be in India she will do pretty 
well, until he gets a bad Station, though even the 
horrors of loneliness and fever may be mitigated by 
obtainable service. But by the time she is suddenly 
transferred with him to another Colony there will be 
a nursery in progress, and then the tragedy — the 
ugly, sordid tragedy of a married life stripped of its 
decencies and privacies — will very possibly begin. 
She will leave her comfortable staff behind her, 
because of the Emigration Act, and on the troop- 
ship she will begin to taste the joys of being her own 
nurses and maid. Then her temper wears, and she 
has not quite so much time to spend over her 
appearance, but instinct holding good she adopts 
the harder and more masculine style as being easier 
to compass under all trials of circumstance. Foreign 

99 


Lcfr-. 


100 


THE RAT-TRAP 


Stations batter the daintiness of life out of her, the 
narrow limits of the Army world distort her mental 
vision, the drawbacks she struggles to overcome 
leave their mark on her. Finally there comes the 
day when even the hateful little compensations to 
which she has become used have to be given up — 
the snobbish sense of position, and the dangling 
after her of men other than her husband, who find 
in her a passee fashion, — for the soldier’s service is 
over, and then comes Ealing and a dress allowance 
to be saved up for the sales. 

Diana Churton had reached the ominous point in 
her career when she saw half-pay darkening the 
horizon. It was unlikely that Major Churton would 
ever be given the regiment, and, as he said, twenty 
years of foreign service had made the solid dullness 
of England a home to his weary eyes. Diana had 
no children to plot and plan for, and marry into the 
same life that she had found a dubious success ; 
their one little girl had died at Agra, and the dumb 
tragedy of their lives was in the moment when they 
turned away from the little grave, in a city for ever 
sacred to the dead by that grand white memory 
called the Taj, and went their separate ways. The 
child as she grew older might have drawn them 
closer together again ; her grave somehow thrust 
them apart. 

“If he thinks I neglected her, or that it was my 
fault, I could kill him ! ” thought the woman fiercely, 
jealous of her motherhood. 

“ If she hints that I do care, I shall lose my con- 
trol — better let the very subject alone,” thought the 
man, for he was afraid of his own temper. 

So Di Churton dropped the remnants of her girl- 
hood into the void of her husband’s silence, and life 
went on as before — always the indefinite man who 
rode with her and danced with her, always the hard 


THE RAT-TRAP 


lOI 


tongues of the Station and the keeping just on the 
safe side, always the restless, feverish desire to get 
something out of life and the sense of disillusion. 
She never lost her husband’s confidence, for she was 
a wise woman ; but she learned a mutual accom- 
modation when “ Bute was thick with Mrs. So-and- 
so.” Diana was attracted by men rather than her 
own sex ; she was in few senses a nice woman, and 
unless she had an object in cultivating them, the 
other ladies in the garrison found her frankly rude. 

At Port Victoria she was fairly intimate with 
Mrs. Gilderoy until the arrival of the Lewins, 
whereupon she transferred her preference to Leo- 
line, not only on account of Alaric, but because 
Chum was obviously successful socially, and Bute 
was conveniently attracted.. It would have suited 
Mrs. Churton very well to have the Lewins nearer, 
for the distance up to Maitso from their bungalow 
was a frequent reason for Mrs. Lewin to slip out of 
an invitation there. It happened one morning, for 
instance, that on a day when Diana had planned to 
have her company Chum rode into town late, and 
gave herself a headache with the heat and the 
exhaustion of the air. The smell of Port Victoria 
is peculiarly its own, and seems to be compounded 
of all the mixed races that inhabit it, not excepting 
the white, for the hot khaki certainly lends its own 
peculiar flavour. The humid streets do not smell of 
the packed stores, or of the decaying vegetation, or 
even of the need for drainage, though they might 
do so, and it is a surprise to those who know the 
place that they do not; but the juices of warm 
Chinaman and Negro and Arab and Malagasy, 
seem to merge and produce an effect that is numb- 
ing to the uninitiated. After six months or so in 
the town people declare that they hardly notice it, 
but Mrs. Lewin had not reached that stage. She 


102 


THE RAT-TRAP 


turned Liscarton’s head towards the hillside, and 
felt thankful that if her homeward way was to be 
overscented it would be with too much sweetness 
rather than otherwise. For it was a characteristic 
of Port Victoria that its rank nastiness should be suc- 
ceeded by enervating odours of flowers the minute 
one gets out of the streets and into the blossoming 
tangle of hills round about. 

The town seemed unusually glaring, and clattered 
with khaki. The rattling by of an officer’s pony, 
and the salute flashed into her dazzled eyes, made 
Chum’s head swim, until she was faintly conscious 
of something else that distracted her attention from 
herself. It was the hour of the Miroro — the noon- 
day sleep — and the coloured people had lounged 
out of store and wharf and were sitting in the 
gutters and on the steps of the houses, eating 
fessikh and dozing and playing native games. But 
above it and through it all rang a sing-song snarl of 
patois, like the complaining note of a caged beast. 
Liscarton almost stopped for the instinctive pressure 
on his rein, and Mrs. Lewin turned in her saddle to 
look back at the streets she was leaving. She 
remembered Gregory’s warning as to the signs of 
trouble ; this sounded like it, this strange note of 
dissatisfaction in the general hum. 

I will speak to Ally, and ask him if there is 
anything fresh — any measure of the Government 
that is unpopular,” she thought, beginning to canter 
uphill mechanically. A Key Island pony wiil 
always canter his hills, unless really tired, upon the 
principle that it is better to get over a difficulty 
quickly and breath yourself afterwards. He is 
bound to be hot with the climb, and the impetus of 
a quicker motion carries him over the rough ground 
with greater ease. 

As Chum entered the delicious cqolness of their 


THE RAT-TRAP 


103 


own bungalow, the telephone rang, and she went to 
answer it. Her husbands voice spoke to her, 
faintly muffled. 

“ Who’s there ? . . . Oh, is it you, Chum ? 

I’m at the club, and it’s too late to come out. 
Brissy’s lunching with me.” 

Don’t drink too many cehos ! ” said Chum 
resignedly from her end of the communication tube. 
“ And tell Captain Nugent I expect him to dinner 
to-morrow — he can bring the banjo.” 

All right. Well, look here. Chum, I’m dining 
with the Churtons unfortunately — they want to 
know if you can ride out too ? ” 

“ My head is too bad. I’m only just out from 
town, and the heat made it ache a good deal. I’m 
afraid I should be the skeleton at the feast if I 
attempted to get up to Maitso. It’s nothing — 
don’t be a silly boy ! I shall have to make the 
effort and come to the Churtons if you bother.” 

“No don’t, if you feel seedy. I’ll ride out and 
see how you are after lunch.” 

“ You are not to do anything of the kind — it's 
too hot for you. Stay at the club. Oh, Ally ” 

“Well?” 

“ Is there anything going on in the Legislature ? ” 

“ Not that I know of more than the usual — 
ahem ! — grind. What’s up ? ” 

“ Nothing. I only thought — oh, nothing. Give 
my love to Di.” 

“ All right. Take care of yourself, dear.” Ally 
rang off hastily, and turned to drink ceho with 
relief. He was not a hypocrite, and he had reached 
a point when he did not want Chum to send her 
love to Mrs. Churton. 

After all, he did not ride out to their bungalow, 
for he talked horse with Captain Nugent to the 
accompaniment of many whiskies, and then it 


104 


THE RAT-TRAP 


seemed too late, remembering that he had to dress 
— he had had his clothes sent down to the club — 
and get his pony and ride up to Maitso. But 
Brissy was not pressed for time, and offered himself 
as a substitute, whereby it came to pass that he 
turned up to have tea with Chum, and impressed 
her anew in her secret heart with his absolute 
inferiority to Ally, and the wearying vacuum of his 
brains. 

“ He is like a bad copy of Ally, too,” sHe thought 
critically, looking at the burnt face and the young 
eyes drawn round with spurious wrinkles by foreign 
service. Under the black moustache Brissy’s teeth 
flashed as he talked, for he had a trick of drawing 
back his upper lip, and above his low forehead the 
dark hair thatched an unusually flat head. Owing 
to vivid colouring, he was considered a handsome 
man among his fellows ; but Mrs. Lewin did not 
admire him. 

“ His eyes have no soul in them — he is just a 
healthy animal ! ” she said to herself disparagingly, 
as he stolidly drank his fourth cup of tea and 
showed no signs of going. “ Oh, thank Heaven, 
Ally is not like this ! What shall I talk about ? ” 

It seemed ridiculous to think of Brissy as a 
father, and Mrs. Lewin never drew him on to do- 
mestic subjects as she might other married men, 
partly because it struck her as inappropriate to him, 
and partly because there was a general belief in 
Key Island that he would have liked to bring his 
wife out with him, but that Mrs. Nugent had not 
been attracted by a small and dull Station such as 
Port Victoria, and had preferred to wait until he 
had something better. Brissy staunchly asserted 
that her health would not stand the heat, but Cap- 
tain Gilderoy had shrugged his shoulders to a select 
audience, and given it as his opinion that at the last 


THE RAT-TRAP 


105 


moment Mrs. Nugent had jibbed ! The theory met 
with credence, and therefore Chum talked banjos 
and ponies rather than married interests, and had 
no suspicion that Brissy’s unemotional eyes strayed 
round the home, for which he envied “ old Ally 
Sloper,” with a secret wistfulness. He was adding 
her presence at her husband’s side to the long list 
of advantages with which he had already endowed 
her, while she privately decided that a lifelong 
tete-a-tete with Bristow Nugent would exhaust the 
vitality of any woman, and that Mrs. Nugent’s 
absence needed no explanation to a sympathetic 
mind. 

Her thoughts touched Ally with fonder appreci- 
ation in contrast. He was at the moment just rid- 
ing leisurely up the winding road that led to Maitso, 
— a handsome fellow, and well contented with him- 
self, and his wife with him. On his right rose the 
solid buildings of the Mess, and as the path swung 
over the hill, corkscrew-wise, the dotted barracks 
grouped themselves on either hand. It was like a 
town in itself, intersected with the irrepressible 
vegetation which broke out into guava and logwood 
brush even here. Maitso looked “ greener ” and 
more deserving of its name than it really was from 
the town; but as Captain Lewin rode up to the 
Churtons’ quarters, he passed through the slight 
screen of logwood, and was shielded from the set- 
ting sun. 

“ Come in. Ally. Bute’s somewhere at the 
Mess,” said Mrs. Churton, appearing on the stoep. 

Where’s Chum ? ” 

She had a headache — said she was awfully sorry 
she didn’t feel up to coming. I’m glad she didn’t 
try, it was so hot riding up.” 

“ I’m sorry she couldn’t, though, as we shall be 
odd numbers. Poor old fellow! you are hot! 


io6 THE RAT-TRAP 

Will you have a ceho or whiskey ? ” Diana was 
hospitable. 

Ally chose ceho, but the whiskey followed, and 
when the Major appeared they had more, sitting out 
until dinner-time and talking in a desultory fashion, 
while they watched the sky darken behind the 
solemn fans of the ravenalas. How hot it was ! 
Even up at Maitso the freshness seemed to have 
been melted from the sea breeze before it reached 
them, and the heavy air clung like a miasma. It 
was intoxicatingly sweet, but languid and enervat- 
ing until the beads of sweat stood on the men’s 
temples without more exertion than their own 
vitality, and even Diana Churton gasped. 

“By Jove! it’s been a swilling day!” Major 
Churton remarked, as he stretched his hand for 
the whiskey. “ My throat feels like blotting-paper. 
Have some more, Lewin ? ” 

“ Thanks ! ” 

There were no ladies present at dinner besides 
Di, but two men from Mitsinjovy dropped in, and 
presently they played Poker. Ally was one of the 
winners, but more by luck than judgment, for the 
heat — or something else — seemed to be making his 
head heavy. Twice he thought he got up to go, 
and then some one said the night was yet young, 
and his limbs felt comfortably indisposed to bestir 
themselves. When midnight struck he dragged 
himself to his feet with a feeling of bewilderment. 

“ Great Scot ! Chum will think I’m killed — had 
a headache, too, poor little soul ! ” he said vaguely. 
His splendid, vacant face was turned to the hot night 
beyond the open doors ; he was wondering how he 
should ever get down that winding hill in the dark 
with this stupid feeling in his brain. He must trust 
to the pony, it was no good worrying. 

Diana beckoned him imperiously on to the stoep. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


107 


and he obeyed, pulling himself together and walk- 
ing straight, without control of his own body, it 
seemed, into the cooler night air. She was holding 
one of the big Mess tumblers, with the Wessex 
crest on it, sparkling with whiskey and soda, and 
deliciously cold with ice. 

A stirrup cup ! ” she said hurriedly. “ Come, 
you must drink it! You are sleepy with the heat 
of the rooms. This will brace you up to get 
home.” 

“ Upon my word, Di, Tve had enough.” 

But she laughed and lifted it to his lips for him, 
and his hand closed on hers and the glass together. 
Ally was smoking, but he took the cigar from his 
lips as if he wondered what to do with it, and Mrs. 
Churton held it for him while he drank, sniffing it 
appreciatively. To some women the smell of smoke 
is a kind of lurid dissipation. The taste of tobacco 
in their own mouths is not nearly so suggestive to 
them. Ally finished the whiskey, and then some- 
thing happened. He did not seem able to hold the 
glass, and it fell and smashed at his feet. He was 
troubled, because it belonged to the Mess, and those 
glasses were expensive things, and had to be made 
in England ; but Mrs. Churton coolly kicked the 
fragments out of the way, and said it did not mat- 
ter. At least the whiskey had not been wasted I 

How dark it was on the stoep, and how hot and 
still ! Up in the further corner no one could see 
them from the lighted room. He remembered 
nothing of getting there, only that her face looked 
softer than usual in the little light there was ; and 
when she put her cool hands behind his head and 
kissed him, he felt a sly amusement that she should 
be so much more keen than he ; there was a passion 
in her kisses, while there was none, he thought, in 
his. And her voice rang in his ears, Ally ! Ally I 


io8 


THE RAT-TRAP 


come to me when other women fail you ! ” while he 
wondered that it seemed to mean nothing. He was 
far more conscious of the outspread fans of the 
ravenalas, as if they would fain screen him from the 
night. 

Some one brought his pony round then, and he 
mounted, surprised it was so easy, and turned the 
brute’s head down the slope. Their voices echoed 
after him and died away on the stillness of the air, 
bidding him good-night, chaffing him noisily, con- 
fusing the way he was going. It was impossible 
to judge one building from another now, and the 
damned paths wound round and round like a maze. 
He should take a wrong turning — no, this was 
safer ! He drove his spurs into his pony’s flanks 
and tore down the hill at a gallop, holding the ani- 
mal mechanically from stumbling, but trusting to 
his instinct to get down safely. Why they did not 
pitch down the steep slopes he did not know, but 
he was not in the least afraid ; a mad exhilaration 
took hold .of him through the wild ride, and he 
urged the pony on still when he got to the foot of 
the hill, and clattered through the sleeping town, 
but the pony knew his way home. Stumbling 
and dripping with sweat, man and horse galloped 
the last few yards, and swept up to the very stable 
door, where the pony stopped with falling head and 
streaming flanks. 

Ally slipped out of the saddle, feeling his mount 
vaguely, and trying to find the words to explain 
that he was to be rubbed down and handled care- 
fully, but they would not come, and he gave the 
rein in silence to a sleepy sais, who seemed to have 
risen out of the shadows of the stoep. A minute 
later his voice came back in a curse, for he tripped 
over the bodies of his own servants crouched close 
to the cool stones. There were more than the men 


THE RAT-TRAP 


109 


of his household there, but he did not know. He 
fumbled at the door, got it unlatched, and reeling 
over to his dressing-room, dropped like a stone on 
to the floor in the middle of the room. 

The heat of the night had prevented Chum from 
sleeping at first, and though her headache had 
driven her to bed early, she had lain there for an 
hour looking up at the white fall of the mosquito 
curtain, and listening to the stupid bustle of a hard- 
back who had drifted in from the outside world in 
company with a dozen moths, and was floundering 
to find his way out again. She fell asleep at last 
listening for Ally’s pony to come up the hill, and 
was in a deep slumber when the bang of a door 
shook her awake as completely as if she had never 
closed her eyes. She sat up in bed, wondering 
what had happened, and listening to some one who 
seemed to be strange to the house, and was trying 
to find his way about. A man must have got in, 
and she was all alone ; yet the boldness of the 
intruder’s movements as regarded noise, and his 
lack of caution, were very unlike the stealthiness of 
the coloured thief. At last the steps found Ally’s 
dressing-room, and passed in. There was an in- 
stant’s pause, a heavy fall, and silence. 

Mrs. Lewin was standing at the closed door be- 
tween the two rooms almost before the sound had 
ceased ; she had no knowledge of how she came 
there, or of how her fingers let down the rattling 
shutter with some vague idea of seeing through the 
opened slits. But there was darkness in the dress- 
ing-room, and she opened the door with one hand 
and switched on the electric light with the other, 
even as she passed in. Nothing had been touched 
from the time when she last saw Ally’s man putting 
it in order that morning. His master having 
dressed at the club, the place had had an air of 


no 


THE RAT-TRAP 


lonely neatness all day, for Ally was regally care- 
less how he flung his clothes about when present. 
Mrs. Lewin took a step forward and almost trod 
upon his prostrate body before she saw that the 
heavy dark something in the middle of the floor 
was a man. 

He was lying nearly on his back, having turned 
in his fall with an instinctive effort towards the air. 
She dropped on her knees beside him, her heart 
beating heavily with the remembrance that the 
nearest doctor was half-an-hour’s ride away, and 
trying to think what one did for a fit. He was 
breathing heavily, and his face was flushed and 
heated. She bent down to wrench open the 
soaked collar . . . and drew back with a 

choking breath. 

Leoline Lewin had seen drunken men before — 
labourers, lying on alehouse benches, or in the sun ; 
ragged wretches soaked in gin to drown their 
misery, and slinking past the police. She had 
heard stories, too, of her own male acquaintance 
being overcome upon occasion, and had found 
them funny enough to laugh at as told by their 
friends. But the real experience had never touched 
her before, nor had she seen the man who had al- 
ways stood upright, to her imagination at least, 
suddenly cast from his dignity to grovel on the 
earth from which he came. 

In the revulsion of the shock she stood very up- 
right herself, as if to prove her own power — a 
grave, white figure overlooking the relaxed body in 
its tumbled dress-clothes which lay at her bare feet. 
Through the appalling silence sounded the man’s 
heavy snoring breath, and the thrum of the hard- 
back which had followed her into the dressing- 
room, and was hitting itself against the beams of 
the ceiling. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


III 


Suddenly the woman remembered where and 
who she was, and what had happened. The little 
harassing details of the tragedy came back to her 
and woke her to shuddering action. She had been 
standing there for some minutes, and half-a-dozen 
dangers might have occurred to clench the position. 
The servants might hear and come to ask what was 
wrong, or some one might have followed Ally to 
see him safely home, though a quick glance at the 
probabilities reassured her that this — this prostrate 
helpless body, was a last stage that had not be- 
trayed itself before. She sprang at the door and 
closed it swiftly, slipping the bolt ; then she dragged 
the mattress off the couch and pushed it as near 
that helpless thing, that seemed no longer her 
husband, as was possible ; and then, with her strong, 
young arms, she took it under the shoulders and 
dragged it on to the improvised bed, spreading a 
covering sheet over the betraying clothes. The 
exertion brought beads of moisture on to her fair 
soft body, and she stood up again panting a little, 
and trying to realise it all. 

She must begin and love all over again, if she 
were to love so low at all. This degraded Ally, 
helpless on her mercy, was no longer the stalwart 
husband round whom she had built up her theo- 
retical married life. A dozen little things that had 
been but pinpricks of annoyance started up in her 
mind suddenly, to intensify the final blow, and she 
saw him as a weak man, without the strenuous love 
of fighting and winning which she had tried to 
coax into him, self-contented, the mere tool of her 
own ambition whenever he had been forced into 
action. The bitterness of her thwarted instincts 
was uppermost as she turned away. That was the 
mate of her own ripe womanhood, the force round 
which her eager life was to centre — that poor weak 


II2 


THE RAT-TRAP 


nature which would resist one temptation as little as 
another, for in the cruelty of this revelation she 
acknowledged what she had been so pitifully deny- 
ing to herself, — that Alaric Lewin was no master 
of life, but the sport of his own idle inclinations. 

She was moving back to her own room with 
dragging feet, when a new terror seemed to spring 
up and startle her back into action again. Some 
one was coming up the garden path with a heavy 
tramp that came straight on towards the stoep and 
the house. It was no barefooted Arab, but the 
impatient tread of a white man who was his own 
messenger, and with a horrible premonition she 
knew it from any more probable one that it might 
have been. It was the Administrator, and he had 
some purpose in thus coming to his Secretary at 
one o’clock in the morning. The sing-song snarl 
outside the stores and in the gutters, during the 
Miroro, came back to her mind ominously. 

With some idea of stopping him before he could 
rouse the servants to get into the house, she hastily 
left the dressing-room, and closing the door behind 
her, as if it held an ugly secret, she sped across the 
large bare dining-room and slipped back the bolt 
of the rough wooden door. But she need not have 
troubled herself for the household. Evelyn Gregory 
had almost brushed against the sleeping Arabs in 
his rapid transit from the garden gate to the house, 
but as he passed along the stoep he coolly stepped 
over the slumbering tangle at his feet with the 
briefest passing scorn for men and women. It 
meant nothing to him in his absorption, and indeed 
he hardly knew that the humanity he spurned with 
his foot was there. He did not expect any of the 
servants to answer his knock, but he meant to rouse 
Captain Lewin, and with this grim intent he swung 
his heavy riding whip round and brought the 


THE RAT-TRAP 


113 

weighted end rattling down on the slight panels of 
the door. The whip was his constant companion, 
and served not for his ponies, but as a weapon of 
defence or of punishment in an emergency. Its 
weight was consequently no slight one, but before 
he could shake the door again it was quietly opened, 
leaving him with the upraised whip in his hand, the 
long lash coiled round his wrist, and his whole at- 
titude unintentionally threatening. 

In the doorway stood a marvellous fair woman in 
her nightdress, the open neck showing her so warm 
and white, that with a little instant thrill he guessed 
at the delicious shoulder under the lace. She had 
come so swiftly that she had not even drawn the 
white silk wrapper closely round her, and one little 
slipper had fallen from her ; he saw it lying in the 
waste of floor behind her, where it had slipped from 
her running foot, and he thought of another white 
satin morsel that he had held between his own. 
The coil of her hair was tossed sideways over her 
shoulder, and brushed away from her forehead, 
leaving her unusually girlish without its customary 
mature dressing, but in her large eyes he saw that 
there was not the least thought of him. She was as 
unconscious of her sweet bare foot as of his cogni- 
zance of it, nor did she know that her careless white- 
ness was a seduction in itself. All her conscious 
life centred round the terror of the last few minutes, 
so that she saw only the situation she had to face. 

Come in, Mr. Gregory,” she said under her 
breath, drawing aside for him to pass in. “ What is 
it ? What is it ? Something is wrong ! ” 

She had turned on the light as she came, and it 
shone in their two faces, the man still struggling 
with his personal thought, the woman strained by 
her private dread of discovery. But the light me- 
chanically influenced her, so that she put up a slight 


THE RAT-TRAP 


1 14 

hand and tugged at the silk wrapper vaguely to 
veil her laces and frills. He watched Her as if fasci- 
nated, without will-power to turn away, and when 
he spoke it was in short clipped phrases, as though 
it were an effort. 

There is a threatening of a rising. The police 
are out. I want the troops ready. Will you call 
your husband ? " 

There was a blank of silence, while it beat into 
her brain that somebody was required to ride to 
Maitso and take the alarm. She thought of a dull 
figure lying heavily on the floor, breathing sten- 
toriously. . . . 

“ Captain Lewin was very late in coming home. 
He is sleeping heavily. I am afraid it will take 
some time to rouse him,” she heard her own voice 
saying, in sentences as concise as his. Would it 
not be better to send one of the men ? I can call 
them in a moment.” 

She turned towards the door, but his outstretched 
hand guided her back without his having moved a 
step. 

ril rouse him ! ” he said grimly. Which is 
his room ? ” 

There was a touch of resentment in him, which 
he himself did not know was there, that this heavy 
sleeper owned the woman before him. A man 
should sleep lightly with her near by, nor ever 
lose his happy consciousness of her even in sleep. 
There was something gross in the suggestion of her 
husband’s heavy slumber. 

“ Where is Captain Lewin ? ” he said curtly. 

Again she saw in her brain the quiet, orderly 
room, the degraded figure, the drunken lethargy 
that no imperious summons would break. Here 
was Ally’s chance, and he had tossed it away for a 
momentary self-indulgence. She felt in her bitter 


THE RAT-TRAP 


115 

impotence that his whole life might be squandered 
after such a fashion, for where was her confidence 
now ? 

And the Administrator was waiting. 

He is very tired,” she repeated dully, looking up 
at Gregory’s sinister height with eyes which had 
grown piteous. It seemed to her as if the founda- 
tions of the man were made of granite, and she 
were hurling herself against them vainly. 

Something in her face seemed to strike him, how- 
ever, for he bent a little nearer to her, and looked 
almost curiously in her face. 

“ Is he ill ? ” he said ; and the suppressed tones 
of his voice were a mere vibration. 

She paused, with a lightning review of such a lie 
and its efficacy. 

Yes,” she said in a low voice, her shamed eyes 
dropping from his. “ I think — it is — a touch of 
fever.” Then in a tone which did not realise its 
own despair, “ I cannot rouse him ! ” 

He stepped back with a long breath, and turned 
his face from her for a minute, as if listening to 
something afar off. She heard his chest rise and 
fall with an extra sense that was not hearing, and 
realised that he understood. All the sting and 
shame that had gone before seemed to be nothing 
in comparison to that moment. He knew, and 
he was a hard man who gave no second chances. 
Alaric Lewin was a failure to his judgment ; not 
because he had got drunk on a hot night, which 
was nothing, but because he was useless in an 
emergency. The cause was little to a mind like 
Gregory’s, but the weakness that might fail him 
again was unforgivable. He had the reputation of 
sweeping such men from his path as useless, with- 
out enmity, but without pity. The hopelessness of 
it all ! 


Ii6 


THE RAT-TRAP 


Suddenly she heard him speaking, and the whis- 
pering voice had a new kindness ; he spoke gently, 
as if to some small frail thing that must not be 
hurt. 

“ Never mind — don't try and wake him. I’ll go 
myself. Don’t worry. Go to bed and rest. It will 
be all right.” 

He laid a large hand on her shoulder, as if to im- 
press the words ; she hardly noticed the action, but 
felt a dull surprise when he as quickly drew it back. 
The man was nothing to her, but a sudden glow of 
comfort sprang up in her heart at his last sentence. 
If he said it would be all right, he meant his own 
coadjutancy to make it so. She felt the power of 
his will, but not of his manhood, and her face was 
broken into softness as she turned it to him in fare- 
well, and opened the door for his hasty departure. 

“ Good-night,” he repeated. Don’t worry ; go 
to bed yourself, and be quite easy. I am so sorry 
to have roused you.” There was a touch of mas- 
tery in his voice, as if he had taken possession of 
the situation to heal her physical and mental weari- 
ness. She rested on it unconsciously, with the 
woman's craving for the strong man who shall not 
fail her. And Ally, alas, had failed ! 

As Gregory swung back along the stoep he looked 
down, consciously this time, at the sleeping Arabs, 
and there -was interest and a secret sympathy in his 
heart. For the touch of the Eternal Feminine was 
on him, and he remembered that to love a woman 
was a goodly thing. His footsteps died away into 
the darkness of the garden, to the gate where he had 
tied his pony, and then after a pause came the sound 
of galloping hoofs as he rode off on his own errand. 
Mrs. Lewin heard it as she stood at the open shut- 
ters of her own window, for she had mechanically 
gone back to her room, and leaned there conscious 


THE RAT-TRAP 


117 


of nothing but a horrible reaction from the tensity 
of the past few minutes. With a primeval instinct 
she turned from the shelter which civilisation has 
raised over men’s heads to the healing of the out- 
side world, for she had a restless craving to get away 
from the confinement of the house and the ugly 
thing of which she knew in the next room. 

The night was quick with fireflies, and the air 
was soft and warm to touch. Some winged thing 
sailed lazily by and made her start by the whirr of 
its heavy body close to her hair — a giant moth it 
seemed, with a barrel-like body and wings like a 
dragon-fly's. Down below on the stoep the Arabs 
lay asleep. . . . She pressed her hands over 

her wakeful eyes and tried not to sob, schooling 
herself because she was a woman — not a child who 
cries away the bitterness over a broken toy. This 
was more serious than a toy, and yet it seemed just 
like an old unreasonable nursery grief, that fretted 
for a thing it had endowed with spurious life. 

She must begin and love all over again. There 
was no stronger nature above her to look up to and 
lean on in fancy, even though she guided by her 
brighter wits and keener vitality. She had cheated 
herself happily in thinking that Ally was really the 
moving spirit in their married life, and that he had 
a reserve of strength upon which she could lean in 
an emergency. He was nothing but a weak man, 
who must be shielded before the world, and watched 
and helped with tenderest care, but never more 
looked up to at quite the same height. No one 
should know or guess that he had so fallen ; she 
would not even have to make excuses for him, she 
would manage so cleverly, for that was her new 
phase of wifehood. Even as the thought crossed 
her mind she turned her head nervously and listened, 
fancying that the servants were awake and coming 


ii8 


THE RAT-TRAP 


to ask who her late visitor had been. If she could 
only keep it from them till the morning, things 
would look more natural. Captain Lewin had slept 
in the dressing-room not to awaken her — he had 
thrown the mattress on the floor and lay there in 
hope of greater coolness. There was more draught 
on the floor — at least she could make it appear so. 
She went over the details in feverish haste, shielding 
and managing already with a woman’s tragic skill. 
But that it should have to be so ! 

Back on her mind flashed the damning certainty 
that the one man who should have been ignorant 
had found out. She had felt his knowledge through 
the horrible pause after her stammering excuse, 
through his courteous sparing of her, and quick 
substitution of himself as a messenger, through the 
kindly fall of his hand on her shoulder. 

“ Don’t worry ; go to bed yourself, and be quite 
easy. I will make it all right. I am so sorry to 
have roused you.” 

She had his promise then to make it all right. 
Yes, he could gloss it over too, — he would take the 
onus of the situation on himself, and thrust his own 
known energy and personal supervision in the face 
of comment. At least her success with him had 
brought her that — enough interest in herself to make 
him spare her husband, for she acknowledged boldly 
to herself that it was her own handling of this man 
during the past few weeks which had saved the sit- 
uation to-night. Yesterday she might have daintily 
skirted the truth, but it seemed a small thing beside 
the bitter failure of her most intimate life. Gregory 
would spare Ally for his wife’s sake, but — the Ad- 
ministrator having to ride to Maitso in place of his 
own A.D.C. ! She almost laughed aloud with a 
sudden hysterical sense of humour. 

“ Oh, I shall go mad — mad ! ” she said desperately, 


THE RAT-TRAP 


119 

as the keenness of the humiliation stung her afresh. 
“ It is all spoilt — all that I planned and worked to 
do. There is nothing but the Man left to me.” 

But with the word the bitterness passed as swiftly 
as it had come. The Man was left her, to guard 
and cherish if no longer to love, honour, and obey, 
for the positions were reversed. Her eyes filled 
with lovely tears, and all that was best and most 
maternal flooded the soreness from her heart. She 
could begin and love all over again — love as one 
loves a child, without looking for adequate return, 
less selfishly than a wife her husband ; she could be 
strong for him, and putting her own craving for 
protection on one side, thrust her strength between 
his weakness and what life had to offer. Her very 
first trial would begin to-morrow, when she cringed 
to think of the shame awaiting his returning con- 
sciousness. She must help him through that first, 
and then arm him for the result of his folly with the 
world at large. 

Leoline Lewin turned from the window, and 
quietly throwing off her wrapper, lay down on the 
bed and went as fast to sleep as if nothing had dis- 
turbed her rest. Part of her theory of life had 
been torn from her, and the sting of keen expe- 
rience had wounded her into quicker life. But she 
was turning her face bravely to meet it, and stood 
up under the new stress of life to prove her woman- 
hood. 


CHAPTER VIII 


“ Le temps, Tinnocence, la confiance, la foi, I’estime — perdez les 
— ^vous ne les recouvrerez plus .” — French Proverb. 


A CEHO head is the best incentive to temporary- 
canonisation that can well be experienced, and 
when, according to the old couplet, “ The Devil was 
sick," and “ A saint would be," he had probably 
been indulging on the preceding night in Key 
Island, whose temperature suggests that it is nearer 
to his dominion than the rest of the globe. Cap- 
tain Lewin woke up on his improvised bed about 
half-past four next morning, and wondered if the 
swelled weight on the pillow were really his head 
or a leaden imitation fastened to his shoulders. 
To sleep in evening dress, too, in Key Island is 
hardly a profitable experiment, and what with the 
sheet spread over him and the liqueur he had 
swallowed. Ally’s state was one of satisfactory 
discomfort. 

He kicked off the sheet, and arose cursing. 
Then events began to come back to him, and as 
he staggered into an upright position — for he was 
very shaky — he looked at the mattress on the floor, 
and wondered who had mercifully arranged it for 
him last night. His memory declined to serve him 
beyond an uneasy recollection of a dark corner of 
the stoep at the Churtons’ quarters, and Diana’s 
stirrup cup. How he had got home he could not 


120 


THE RAT-TRAP 


I2I 


tell, but the state of his mouth informed him 
ruefully that he had been very drunk indeed. 
Ceho has a singular effect upon the glands of the 
throat, if taken in large quantities, so that a regular 
drinker gets a strange and unclassified disease after 
many years' tippling, which the doctors call 
“ Drawn threads ” for lack of a better name. 

Alaric Lewin shuddered a little as he stumbled 
over to the door with some idea of closing it if it 
were open, and getting himself washed and dressed 
into the morning guise of a gentleman. He had 
known men with “ Drawn threads,” and wondered 
how soon the symptoms really showed themselves. 
But he need not have feared for his splendid young 
constitution, as yet, and a minute later he forgot 
the creepy thought in a new wonder. 

The door of his dressing-room was bolted. So 
was the door into his wife’s room, the latter on the 
inner side, for he tried it gently. Some one had 
seen him come in last night then, and had done 
their best for him, but he had no idea as to 
whether it were Chum or one of the servants. He 
hoped from the bottom of his soul that it was the 
latter, for the reaction from last night's excess was 
having a chastening effect. He was bitterly 
ashamed, and as he caught sight of his own face 
in the glass, a dark flush swept over his unwhole- 
some pallor for an instant. 

“ Great Scot ! I am a sickly beast,” said Ally 
fervently, and with a rush of distaste for himself in 
his present condition he began to strip hastily, 
throwing the clothes aside after his usual careless 
fashion. His bath had been placed for him the 
night before, and he got into it with a feverish 
desire for cleanliness and coolness, but it seemed to 
him that the water hissed off his skin, and that 
even after a hard rub down there was a burning 


122 


THE RAT-TRAP 


heat upon him. He was sick and sorry too, and he 
knew enough of the climate to recognise that this 
would not do. He had no compunction in rousing 
his household, but he devoutly hoped that Chum 
might not hear him when he opened his door and 
called, for it is a peculiarity of Key Island, that 
though there is electric light there, there are no 
bells ; every one shouts, and for this reason the 
servants get into a loafing habit of keeping round 
about the open doors, their possible summons being 
an excellent excuse for doing no work meanwhile. 

By the time Mrs. Lewin came down to breakfast 
her husband was already in the room, as smart as 
usual, save for the drawn face above the spotless 
white linen. The heat seemed to get up as early 
as the residents in Key Island, and by eight o’clock 
the sun is as strong as at noon on an English June 
day. Leoline seemed to feel it oppressive, for she 
gasped a little as she came over to the table, and 
Ally turned sharply at the slur of her gown over 
the bare floor. The holland did not rustle, but she 
had a way of moving which was as regal as the 
action of a racehorse, and it created a certain stir 
of atmosphere about her. It struck Alaric at that 
moment that his wife was chic even in her night- 
dress, which is a costume resolving most women 
back into the original elements of their natures. 

For a second they stood on either side the dainty 
table, and the embarrassment of the unconfessed 
lay deep between them. Then Alaric said “ Good- 
morning, Chum,” and moved into his place without 
raising his eyes. As a rule they kissed each other 
as heartily as when they were school-children. 

Mrs. Lewin sat down opposite him and began to 
pour out the tea. The breaking of the ice rested 
with her, but she took it quite naturally ; her new 
sense of responsibility seemed to make it an 


THE RAT-TRAP 


123 


expected thing that she must always from hence- 
forth take the lead, not as she had hitherto taken 
it, with the screen of Ally’s personality around her, 
but without disguise. 

She looked at the honeycomb on the table, and 
observed that Abdallah had not remembered the 
butter-knife, an omission to be corrected for the 
seventeenth time. Then she pushed the dish of 
iced mangoes towards Ally mechanically, and then 
she caught her breath again, and spoke — 

You were very late down from the Churtons’, 
Ally.” 

“ Yes.” He had had a whiskey- and-soda before 
breakfast, a “ Hair-of-the-dog-that-bit-him ” cure 
that enabled him to eat; but the food tasted badly 
in his mouth at that moment. Did you hear me 
come in ? ” he said. 

“ Yes.” 

You bolted the door, and got the mattress on 
to the floor, I suppose ? ” 

“ Yes.” 

There was a long pause, and it seemed as if the 
words would never come. 

“ I am awfully sorry. Chum.” 

“ How was it ? ” she said, half under her breath. 
The troubled eyes of husband and wife met across 
the gay little table, glittering with their wedding 
silver and glass, and rich with strange tropical 
fruit and flowers. Ally and Chum had always 
revelled in the Key’land breakfast and their foreign 
dishes and luxuries, — somehow the sight of it be- 
tween them now made what they had to say seem 
more tragic by contrast. 

“It was so awfully hot!” Ally said lamely. 
“ On my honour, it’s a solitary instance. I haven’t 
been squiffy like that except once or twice before 
in my life.” 


124 


THE RAT-TRAP 


An uncomfortable memory of the Churtons’ stoep 
was making him wretched, and the flavour of that 
episode tasted worse in his mouth than stale ceho. 
He fidgeted with the fruit, while Chum on her side 
of the table was absorbed by the worse revelation 
that she had to make. 

“ Did you hear anything in town yesterday about 
the people being discontented?” she said, feeling 
the difficulty like a stone wall before her. “ I asked 
you through the telephone, but you said no, then, — 
perhaps you knew of it later.” 

“ No, I heard nothing. Is there anything fresh ? ” 
Ally was relieved at the change of subject. 

There was the threatening of a rising ” 

“By Jove! was there? Come, that’s exciting. 
Anything is welcome to break the monotony of 
this dead-alike hole ! I shouldn’t have made an ass 
of myself last night if it hadn’t been for that,” he 
said ruefully, drifting back to his own uneasy sense 
of shortcoming. 

“ I don’t know whether anything happened. The 
Administrator thought ” 

“ Where did you see Gregory ? ” he asked, star- 
tled. “ I got off early because he was going round 
to Port Albert until Friday. His yacht was w^ait- 
ing at the quay ; I saw it as I rode through town.” 

“ Then he must have heard something that made 
him change his mind, for he did not go. He came 
here last night, or rather in the early morning be- 
tween one and two.” 

“ Chum 1 ” 

He laid down his knife and fork and looked 
at her across the table, his face whitening. But 
it was the pity in her eyes, rather than a real un- 
derstanding of what had happened, that frightened 
him. 

“ Did he want me? ” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


125 


Yes.” 

He asked for me ? What did you say ? ” 

I said you were ill — overtired — that I could not 
rouse you.” 

“ And he took that, and went ? ” 

A sense of marvel possessed his wife at the easy 
relief of his tone. He thought his difficulty so 
easily overcome that it seemed to her childish. 
Could he really think that a nature like Evelyn 
Gregory’s would be so set aside, brushed off by a 
light excuse. 

“Yes, he went — but ” She hesitated, and 

then it seemed that plain speaking was best. “ He 
guessed what was wrong. Ally. He kept urging 
me to rouse you, and of course I could not. Then 
he said he would rouse you himself, and I had to 
stop him. He was very good — he spoke quite 
kindly, and told me not to worry — he would go to 
Maitso himself. But — I do not think he will for- 
get, though things may seem as usual between you.” 

Down the length of the table, between the tall 
silver vases of stephanotis and honeysuckle, she 
saw his handsome, despondent face, the dark head 
leaning on his hand, the passing gravity which 
made him seem noble clouding out his usual 
laughter. Gravity and a touch of pensive regret 
suited Alaric as even his debonair self-assurance 
did not do. He had never looked handsomer than 
just then. 

“ I am very sorry. I have made a fool of my- 
self.” He spoke humbly, and yet somehow seemed 
more of a man than she had thought him since last 
night. “ You are disappointed, Chum ! ” 

“ It’s not my loss. Ally, it’s yours. And it 
doesn’t matter being disappointed if we can go on 
all right now. I think we can pull straight again, 
old fellow.” She was pitifully anxious to help him, 


126 


THE RAT-TRAP 


and to get that look off his face that made her 
heart ache. He must be encouraged like a child, 
as well as chidden. She hated to see him carry his 
head without the usual insolence of his own good 
looks. As she poured out a second cup of tea for 
him — the “ drawn threads of his throat burnt like 
thirst — she rose and carried it round to him herself, 
with a kind young hand laid on his shoulder. The 
little extra attention, when he knew she might have 
reproached him, touched Alaric the more, because 
he looked on his wife as an undemonstrative woman. 
He turned swiftly from the table and laid his head 
against her breast with a boyish gesture. In truth, 
he wanted comforting, for he was face to face with 
his own responsible mistake, and fortune had petted 
and spoiled him hitherto rather than met him with 
the grim face she wore to-day. There was a little 
silence while Leoline stroked the dark hair, and held 
him tenderly against her. But her eyes looked out 
over his head with the expression of one who has 
gazed in the face of Medusa. She had that new 
protective feeling for something weaker than her- 
self, but it was no longer the theoretical Ally she 
had married and set on a hymeneal pedestal. 

“ Don’t, dear ! ” she said at last, and her voice was 
a whisper. “ It is not a hanging matter — we won’t 
let it be. I will help you — may I ? ” 

“ You’re the best of Chums ! ” he whispered back 
with a rather uncertain smile. ** But you shan’t 
have to pull me up for boozing. I don’t know how 
it happened last night — we were all playing Poker, 
and their quarters are so hot, and we kept on with 
whiskey after whiskey. I must have come down 
that hill like a madman ! ” 

She gave a dismayed exclamation. Did any 
one hear you? ” 

Half the town I should think, and all our serv- 


THE RAT-TRAP 


127 

ants. It’s no use not facing it, you know, and 
fellows have got drunk before.” 

“We must live it down anyhow, Ally. If only 
it had not been last night! And the Churtons 
know.” She spoke in short, pausing sentences, 
thinking it out. “ We don’t know the real extent 
of the mischief until we hear whether the rising 
were anything serious.” 

A sudden passing gloom darkened his face again. 
“ Gregory never forgives that kind of thing. Dear, 
this means ruin to any career for me I ” 

He rose impatiently, and began to stroll up and 
down the room, as though he could not sit still. 
After a minute she followed him, and put her arms 
round him, bringing him to a standstill. The warm, 
motherly look of love that had been in her eyes 
last night was there again as she lifted her head and 
looked at him. 

“ I don’t care, darling, as long as we are side by 
side, and can help each other 1 ” she said. “ Only 
let us stand or fall together ! ” 

The silent, golden day was unbroken by any 
whisper, but the two kissed each other gently for 
promise, and looked into each other’s faces with 
a gravity too gentle for passion. While the best 
side of our nature is uppermost a vow seems almost 
superfluous. If reason will not bind us, a futile 
fear of our own oath is a poor alternative. Un- 
fortunately, the best side of our nature so seldom 
remains in the ascendant, but has a disheartening 
tendency to give way before the baser instincts of 
the clay. 

Alaric set off for Government House in a state of 
mind more angelic than comfortable. He felt as if 
the backbone had gone out of him with the wicked- 
ness, and his good resolutions were less easy to 
carry than his usual self-satisfaction. Nevertheless 


128 


THE RAT-TRAP 


it was a beautiful mood, and as genuine as any other 
while it lasted. He found that the Administrator 
had slept out at China Town at the house of the 
Town Warden. This was disturbing, and the im- 
penetrable reserve of Mr. Halton’s manner when 
they encountered each other for a few moments did 
not tend to soothe matters. Ally felt that to await 
he knew not what, and try to work, tended towards 
temporary insanity. At half-past eleven he or- 
dered his pony, and rode down into Port Victoria. 

There was no sign of disturbance there, but he 
felt that he could better have faced the town in 
ruins, and the coloured population howling and 
dancing the “ Cannab Hari-kari,” which is a dance 
of death, than the solitary figure of Evelyn Gregory 
which haunted his imagination. Why had the Ad- 
ministrator slept out at China Town ? What was 
going on ? 

He lounged into the club, the fret of his nerves 
making the click of the billiard balls a torture. 
Two men were listlessly playing in the ugly bare 
room, where the sun beat past the stoep and 
through the glassless window slits. Ally watched 
the game for a few minutes, and then his restless- 
ness drove him across the landing into the reading- 
room where no one ever read. Last month’s papers 
still lay on the table, and a solitary member was 
writing at one of the neglected tables. Ally almost 
beat a retreat at sight of the square shoulders and 
dark head shot over with grey. No other man in 
Key Island wore and kept his collars as high and 
clean as the officer in command of the troops. 
With the temperature at 90° in the shade Major 
Churton was as coolly immaculate in glossy linen 
as if he were in Bond Street, and where lesser men 
succumbed to turned-down collars and porous shirts, 
his were triumphantly starched. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


129 

“ Hulloa, Major ! ” Ally said, with an inward 
flinching from the encounter. 

“ Hulloa, Lewin ! ” The O.C.T. turned his hard 
brown face, and there was a twinkle in his bold 
eyes. “ Got home all right last night, eh ? ” 

A reaction of relief met the twinkle, in Ally’s 
facile nature. “ By Jove ! I was drunk ! ” he said, 
laughing, as he dropped into a chair by the Major’s 
side. “ My mouth feels like a sponge to-day. Did 
I gas much? I owe Mrs. Churton an apology for 
such an exhibition in her house.” 

You were a bit on. Nothing to hurt — unless 
your pony suffered ! You went down that hill like 
greased lightning. I had no idea the brute had it 
in him — Polo knocks their feet about as a rule.” 

“ Snapshot took me home — I certainly didn’t 
take him. By the way, have you heard anything 
of any native trouble ? ” 

“ Yes, there was a scare, I believe. Gregory sent 
up a message that we must be ready to turn out, in 
the middle of the night, and rode to China Town 
afterwards. Nothing came of it, I presume — at 
least we have heard nothing more.” 

“ My wife got wind of it. I haven’t seen the 
Administrator.” Ally’s eyes were still troubled for 
all the easy assurance of the Major’s tone. 

“ Of course there may be a row brewing at China 
Town,” he said. “ Even going on. We shan’t 
hear till it’s over, according to Mr. Gregory’s usual 
methods. I think myself it was a false alarm.” 

“ There’s a telephone from the barracks to Bur- 
ton’s house, isn’t there ? ” said Ally. “ They may 
have heard something up at Maitso.” 

“ All right. I’ll ask Di.” The Major rung up and 
curtly demanded to be connected with his house. 
After the usual trying delay Ally heard him say, 
“ Oh, that you, Di ? ” and waited breathlessly. 


130 


THE RAT-TRAP 


No,” he remarked after a few brief questions 
and imaginable answers. “No news, — Di,” his 
mouth was again at the tube — “ Lewin is here. All 
the better for last night’s temperance meeting ! 
What ? — Oh, Di wants you to come and lunch.” 

Now was Ally’s good angel to fail him. He 
thought of the limp feeling that self-abasement gave 
him, and of how it would certainly season his lunch- 
eon with Chum’s uncomplaining face opposite. He 
thought also, with a sense of injury, that she took 
his one excess very seriously, and that Churton 
himself made light of it. If he went to Maitso 
Diana would by no means have a chastening and 
depressing influence. Hang it ! he had eaten hum- 
ble pie enough for one morning, and been wretched 
into the bargain. No doubt he should have an- 
other bad quarter of an hour with Gregory ; he 
would not be miserable from choice. 

“ All right — please say I shall be very pleased, if 
she is so charitable as to forgive last night.” 

“ Oh, she will look on that with indulgence I 
have no doubt ! ” said Churton with some cynicism. 
“We are none of us total abstainers that we can 
accuse each other. Have a whiskey on the strength 
of that confession, Lewin ! ” 

When Alaric rode up through the logwood 
screen, and pulled rein before the O.C.T.’s quarters, 
Mrs. Churton came forth to meet him with a 
friendly handshake, and no refere-^ce to the advance 
of last night. She was a skilful woman. The 
Major had come up before, so Diana had already 
heard of the supposed alarm, and guessed a good 
deal of Ally’s part in it. She drew the rest of the 
story from him, new-coloured with the self-defence 
that had been growing on him all day, and was 
loud in her scorn of Gregory’s eccentricities. 

“ He would like to turn the troops out now and 


THE RAT-TRAP 


131 

then on a false scent, to prove their smartness,” she 
declared. “ The men will mutiny next, if he sends 
any more such orders to Maitso, and then he will 
revel in a new row. He’s like that — Bute was sta- 
tioned with him once before. There’s literally 
nothing in it but his usual fuss, and love of wprry- 
ing a situation to rags. Gregory’s a Prairie dog, 
and Halton’s a cat — you can’t trust what either of 
them says or does.” 

“ It was unfortunate that he took a fit of it last 
night,” Ally admitted, but he felt comforted, and 
Mrs. Churton’s mental touch upon his nerves was 
more soothing, for the moment at any rate, than 
his wife’s. He lingered on and on through the 
afternoon, and though he shunned actual stimulant 
he took many mental whiskies and sodas to keep 
himself up. By the time he rode home again to 
dinner his repentance of the morning had changed 
into a state of injury that the Administrator should 
raise false alarms, and upset a peaceful community. 
No more was known of Mr. Gregory’s movements, 
save that he had returned to Government House, 
and still Port Victoria was quiet. It was obviously 
a false alarm and a fad of the man in power, and 
with a peculiar transposition of mind Captain Lewin 
no longer felt that he was the injurer in failing his 
chief at a crucial moment, but rather the injured 
party in that Mr. Gregory had chosen the one even- 
ing when he was-|^er — not up to the mark, to make 
demands upon him. The elasticity of his conscience 
was only equal to his capacity for avoiding unpleas- 
ant truth. 

Poor Chum ! she was writing her new creed on 
sand, and when she saw her teaching briefly re- 
flected on the surface of his mind, she thought that 
it was permanent, and did not realise her own 
disaster. 


CHAPTER IX 


“ II n’y a que le premier pas qui coute .” — French Proverb. 

The Commissioner, in company with Mrs. Arthur 
White and the Colonial Treasurer, was booked for 
England in the next steamer that called at Key 
Island. The mail came in once a month, but 
occasionally an alteration of route would bring lesser 
boats to the great coaling-station as well as the 
cruisers, and Mr. Halton plainly said that he would 
go in a tin kettle of a tramp rather than wait longer 
than was necessary. His work being finished, the 
Commissioner found no reason for lingering. There 
was indeed a sting in Mr. Halton’s secret conscious- 
ness that made Key Island the more distasteful. 
His rides and walks and dilettante attendances on 
Mrs. Lewin were no more, for he was superseded 
by a stronger personality and writhed to face the 
failure of his life in a new form. Something of the 
feline nature that Diana Churton had bluffly dis- 
cerned was uppermost in him # 50 , and he waited 
for a mental pounce since he was no longer purring 
under a soft hand. A small man is infinitely more 
dangerous to irritate than his brother of a larger 
nature, because he deals with details, and the triviali- 
ties that go to make up tragedies are his province. 
Halton was waiting, though not consciously, to 
avenge himself for the fact that he had allowed the 
Administrator to displace him with Mrs. Lewin, and 
132 


THE RAT-TRAP 


133 


act cavalier in an uncouth method of his own ; and 
there was no weak spot in their armour that could 
have escaped him. But Chum, having nothing to 
conceal, was not a remunerative study, and the 
Commissioner fretted in vain until the rains came 
down and blotted out Port Victoria for a space dur- 
ing which he lost even the contemplation of his an- 
noyance, for when the Heavens open the social life 
is paralysed. 

September brought back the sunshine, and the 
Gilderoys gave a picnic. Being the herald of re- 
newed amusement, it had an air of festivity that 
most like entertainments lacked in their deadly 
monotony. Every one went, from Maitso out to 
Mitsinjovy, and Mrs. Lewin put on her last new 
muslin gown and looked at herself in the glass with 
mingled satisfaction and regret. She had ridden 
and danced and picnicked through the remainder of 
her big trunks in the last six months, for muslin is 
perishable and silk goes rotten in those latitudes ; 
and Key Island knew the very pattern of her laces 
save this last white wonder with its unutterable 
frills and the grace of fancy sleeves. Leoline was 
a woman whose figure gave one the idea of one 
lovely line swept off harmoniously from throat to 
heel. She might wear muslins made on anybody’s 
pattern, but they became her own muslins by im- 
mediate association, and followed the fall of her 
lissome body as tl|Dugh they loved her. 

“Just come ana choose my hat. Ally,” she called 
through the dressing-room door, and Alaric’s broad 
shoulders and smooth head followed her summons 
dutifully. There was no outward difference be- 
tween husband and wife ; the same easy relations 
existed between them that made Mrs. Lewin’s nick- 
name of “ Chum ” typical, the same surface confi- 
dence that caused Ally to staunchly assert to Mrs. 


134 


THE RAT-TRAP 


Churton that his married life was entirely satisfac- 
tory, and he himself a beast. The qualification 
marked the advance of their intimacy. But in her 
heart Mrs. Lewin knew that she was altering ; some 
new strong development was taking place in the 
very fibres of her nature, and the transformation 
was a painful process to herself at any rate. It was 
even a different face that she saw in the glass as Ally 
looked over her shoulder and condemned her choice. 

“ Not that chiffon thing. Chum, surely. Aren’t 
you going to wear a habit ? ” 

“ It’s too hot. Besides, I wish to leave a good 
impression on Mr. Halton’s mind, and this is his 
last festivity. He leaves next week, and takes the 
memory of my muslin with him. Isn’t it pretty ? ” 

“ Damfino ! as the Pink'un used to say — or was it 
the Referee ? It’s new too, isn’t it ? ” 

“ My last. Why don’t you like that hat ? Will 
my Panama do ? ” 

“ That’s better. Who will ride with you. Chum ? 
ITalton ? ” 

“ Major Churton, I think. With a possible rever- 
sion to Brissy.” 

“Why not Gregory’s Powder? Think of my 
interests ! ” 

“ He is not coming with us, but will turn up at 
cur destination. He has business that will keep 
him down at the office until later,” said Mrs. Lewin 
without hesitation over the Ac^inistrator’s plans, 
for she knew them, and knew mso deeper reasons 
for them, which she did not tell Ally — reasons that 
fed the activity of her mind, and to which she 
listened with the faithfulness of a tried friend. ' For 
when Gregory laid the heavy weight of his confi- 
dence gradually upon her, he bound her with a chain 
whose iron links she hardly felt more than silken as 
yet. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


135 


Ally accepted her information as more infallible 
than an official telegram. “ The O.C.T. has his 
innings first then,” he added. “ Hurry, Chum ! I 
told them to saddle up.” 

Mrs. Lewin thrust a last fierce hatpin into her 
Panama, and put up her hand to settle the hairpins 
at her neck. If was four o’clock, and they were 
due at the rendezvous at half-past, for this was a late 
picnic which began in the afternoon and ran on into 
nightfall. Such excursions can be planned for two 
periods of the day — early morning, or when the sun 
is losing its power, but between those hours lies the 
Miroro, when no white man may work or play. A 
morning picnic sets out before seven, breakfasts up 
on the hills, and buries itself in the heart of the 
woods during the day’s heat, emerging again at four 
for the return to dinner and iced drinks; but it 
means a long strain on the endurance of the guests’ 
attraction for each other, and the Gilderoys were 
wise in their generation and chose the shorter 
method. 

At the foot of Maitso the Lewins fell in with 
Halton on his way from Government House, and 
Brissy Nugent hot from a canter from Mitsinjovy, 
where he had been lunching. The four ponies 
turned sturdily to the ascent, and Mrs. Lewin 
looked at the streaked flanks of Ally’s mount, and 
thanked Heaven for the blanket under her saddle, 
for Liscarton’s \^t sides did not agree with her 
frills. There haa been, to her secret amusement, a 
brief struggle between Halton and Nugent as to 
who should ride beside her, and the soldier’s more 
brazen tactics had won the coveted place. Brissy 
was not thin-skinned, and that Halton shrugged 
his shoulders mentally, and classified him as still 
an unlicked cub, did not trouble him so much as it 
would have done to be proved the weaker man. 


136 


THE RAT-TRAP 


Mrs. Lewin laughed silently, and as usual found 
reason for enjoyment in her immediate present. 
Afterwards it seemed as if every detail of that day 
were cruelly impressed on her memory, and she 
never could forget one. Even the garrison jokes 
that Brissy told her in doubtful taste, and at which 
she had learned the futility of frowning, remained 
in her mind long after things she would fain have 
kept had drifted from her. She could remember 
the very smell from the vegetation which had over- 
grown the road during the recent rain, and turning 
in her saddle to look down and see the satin blue 
bay and the roofs of the crazy little town, whose 
zinc shone like a glare of silver in the sunshine. 
Beyond Mitsinjovy the Left Gate stood out like a 
vast sentinel, shutting out the sea and the horizon, 
but from Maitso Hill they could only see the cone 
of the Right Gate rising over their own position. 
Below them in the harbour the great walls of coal 
looked nothing but toy-mounds and black lines, 
and the mass of shipping was but a detail in the 
picture. 

Often as she had seen that view Mrs. Lewin was 
vaguely conscious of seeing it afresh that day, and 
the row of ravenalas outside the Churtons’ quarters, 
too, struck her as they never had before, while 
there seemed a new suggestion that she could not 
grasp in the two mounted figures themselves, wait- 
ing motionless in the logwood shade. Diana was 
at her best in the saddle, but the Major, who could 
have ridden down any man present, looked too 
large for a Key Island pony. Even at the moment 
Leoline Lewin wondered that she noticed these 
things, and seemed possessed of a novel alertness, 
a keener sense of observation than ever before, as 
though her mental life had quickened. She always 
thought of the Gilderoys’ picnic as the last occasion 


THE RAT-TRAP 


137 


on which she wore muslin appropriately. She liked 
to be in sympathy with her gowns, and she never 
again felt the adequate frivolity for the dainty frills 
she laid aside that night. Life seemed to have gone 
too deep for muslins from that time forth — a foolish 
fancy, but one that made the successful little frock 
something of a relic. 

“ How are you. Chum ? The Gilderoys are 
waiting at the top of the hill,” Diana called out 
strongly. Half the Station is up there already. 
Wait a minute — here comes the Denver girl and 
Gurney.” 

Mrs. Lewin looked at Major Churton, and sat 
still. 

An invitation with R. S. V. P. in the corner,” 
said the Major succinctly to himself, and went 
straight to his goal in characteristic fashion. ** Do 
I ride with you, Mrs. Lewin ? ” 

“ I will trust you to go first ! ” said Chum gaily. 
“ There will be no riding with any one if I know 
the path we are taking. The ponies slide down on 
their tails the other side of Maitso, for I am sure we 
are going over the Pass and towards Rano.” 

“ The Gilderoys are fools if they do,” he said, as 
they fell into the procession side by side. “ Do you 
know what Rano means, by the way ? ” 

“ I am not quite ignorant, Major ! It means 
water in Malagasy, and is given to that range of 
hills because of the many springs there — have I 
learned my geography lesson rightly ? How lovely 
the Rano Falls are, by the way! We rode out 
there just before the rains.” 

“ Yes, and they will be rather more than lovely 
just now I Does the name suggest nothing to your 
mind? ” 

You think the floods will be up ? ” Mrs. Lewin 
asked startled. 


I3S 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“ I think the Rano District will probably be im- 
passable just now, but we will see.” His keen eyes 
fell on the couple in front of them, who were Mr. 
Gurney and Miss Denver, and he laughed. “ That 
young lady is a puzzle to the garrison,” he said. 
“ The women cannot decide if she is a bad lot or 
only a little fool.” 

“ It is her people’s fault. They let her ride about 
with the boys stationed here up to twelve at night, 
and she spends half her time at Mitsinjovy with 
Mrs. Clayton. What can you expect ? Of course 
people talk. But I think she is quite capable of 
taking care of herself.” 

“ I don’t know. This affair with Gurney out- 
shines her former little peccadilloes. She has the 
worried air of a girl who has been kissed ! ” 

You ought to be ashamed of yourself for know- 
ing such things ! ” retorted Chum quickly. Per- 
haps they are engaged. I know nothing of Mr. 
Gurney beyond his voice. He may be all right.” 

“ Or she may be all wrong ! I would solve the 
mystery in three minutes — if I were a bachelor. 
As things are I do not feel inclined to help to 
satisfy public curiosity.” 

“ I don’t like you nearly so well when you talk 
scandal,” said Mrs. Lewin frankly. And you so 
very seldom do it that it jars the more. The girl is 
not able to defend herself either. Don’t let us at- 
tack her without cause.” 

There had been ample cause, in so far as a 
foundation for gossip went, and she knew it in her 
own mind, even while she defended a fellow-woman. 
It flashed across her, with a sense of absolute 
wondefr, that she could not imagine such a position 
as Miss Denver’s — a girl accepted in the social 
world of the place, asked to people’s houses, and 
spoken of by men as Major Churton had spoken ! 


THE RAT-TRAP 


139 


Leoline Lewin could not quite realise the tone of 
mind in Beatrix Denver, if she could allow herself 
to be handled, not by one man only, but by many, 
if report spoke truly. She herself had never been 
kissed by any man until her engagement, and felt 
that she would have a certain shyness in the admis- 
sion after other women’s avowed experience. It 
seemed rather immature, somehow. And yet the 
mere thought of familiarity, even in her present 
assured position, appeared an impossibility to her 
sense of self-valuation. Of course she could not 
soil her own self-respect by such a thing, though she 
kept her charity for those who were less particular. 
Last week, for instance, Di Churton had told her 
that the very Mrs. Clayton, who was Miss Denver’s 
chief ally at the Mitsinjovy Garrison, had got the 
new boy from Natal in tow. He was rather a nice 
youth named Rennie, as Mrs. Lewin knew him, 
with little harm as yet in his twenty-one years ; but 
his education had begun in earnest. 

“ He runs after Mrs. Clayton everywhere,” Diana 
declared. “ She takes him home after the dances, 
and he unlaces her gowns for her. Brissy Nugent 
told me so.” 

“ What a pity he didn’t stay with the first battal- 
ion in Natal,” was all Mrs. Lewin had said. But in 
her own mind she drew a line of demarcation be- 
tween herself and Mrs. Clayton as unconsciously 
Pharisaical as though they were of different castes. 
She was thinking of this now, as she rode over to 
Maitso, in the wake of Mr. Gurney and Miss 
Denver, and her mood was tolerant because she 
was too clear-brained to take a narrower position. 
These people did not really matter in hers and 
Ally’s lives ; their vulgarity need not affect her, 
though she lived in touch with them for a period. 
By and by they would drop out of her existence, 


140 


THE RAT-TRAP 


and she would pass on to something cleaner, 
unsmutched. 

On the crest of the hill they joined the rest of 
the party, which had become gradually augmented, 
so that between twenty and thirty ponies turned off 
to the right in single file, and followed a precipitous 
path into the hills. A rough cart, borrowed from 
the garrison, and drawn by six stamping, vicious 
mules, had gone on ahead with the provisions, by a 
longer but less dangerous route. As Mrs. Lewin 
had predicted, the ponies had to slide when they 
could not walk, and the descent into the next valley 
was like a winding stair. To the right the steep 
precipice fell sheer down to a flat green bottom 
overgrown with logwood and guava — what the 
Planters called “ dirty land,” because it had not 
been “ cleaned ” for sugar-cane or banana. The 
path was so slight a track that Major Churton, rid- 
ing in front of Chum, had often to push a way for 
her through the eager vegetation. Above the cleft 
hills and the valley smiled the blue sky, washed 
clean by the rains, and from all sides rose the breath 
of the still moist earth. 

“ This is like riding in a vapour bath,” said Mrs. 
Lewin, gasping a little, as the cavalcade emerged 
from the trees for a moment and met the freer air 
of the hillside. “ Major Churton, you were- right — 
the streams are in flood ! ” 

Her exclamation was echoed by a cry of dismay 
from the vanguard of the party, for the curve of the 
hill had revealed the impassable volume of water to 
them. A regular cascade, which in dry weather 
was nothing but a shallow stream, was tearing down 
the hill at a lower level, and cutting off the valley 
land from their advance. The string of ponies 
stopped, and there ensued an argument which was, 
of course, shouted up and down the hill as to a 


THE RAT-TRAP 


141 

change of route. Here and there a pony fretted on 
the bit, and brought his hind legs dangerously near 
the edge of the track ; once a woman shrieked — it 
was Miss Denver’s voice, pitched to an hysterical 
tone that made Mrs. Lewin’s pulses leap with sud- 
den dread for her — and an occasional “ Woa, boy ! ” 
** Steady, mare ! ” showed that somebody’s mount 
resented the delay. It struck Mrs. Lewin how 
strange the string of ponies must look from below, 
dotted along the hillside, and she laughed — she re- 
membered that, too, afterwards as something un- 
canny. There are days on which we seem to have 
been too prodigal of laughter, and to have squan- 
dered it for little reason. 

Well, we must ride on and get somewhere,” 
said Mrs. Gilderoy’s exasperated voice at last. 
“There’s a way round; we must take that, and 
follow the cart.” 

“ But I told Mr. Gregory the short cut ! ” pro- 
tested her husband blankly. “ He will be sure to 
come this way. Will he think of the other road ? ” 

“ He must, unless he is an arrant fool,” said Mrs. 
Gilderoy, with refreshing candour, and no respect 
for the representative of the British Government. 
“No one can cross that stream without getting wet 
to the waist. We must ride on. You don’t want 
to wait until he turns up, I suppose ? ” 

Some echo of the altercation passed down the 
line of riders and troubled the air around Mrs. 
Lewin. She said nothing, but a new silence seemed 
to have fallen upon her as Liscarton at last pricked 
his ears and followed his leader with obvious satis- 
faction. There was no fear that any one who knew 
the country as Gregory did would attempt impossible 
feats ; the probability was that he might grasp the 
situation much sooner than they had done, and, not 
knowing what they had decided, turn round and go 


142 


THE RAT-TRAP 


home. Mrs. Lewin’s mind felt a sudden blank ; she 
was looking forward to meeting him to-day, after 
an absence of nearly a week, to catch some hint of 
his plans that would not yet be public property. It 
was still a matter of some scornful marvel to Leoline 
Lewin that every one round her openly lamented 
their lot in being bound to Key Island, for she did 
not realise that her own vitality was being kept up 
by a vivid interest. She was living much more 
actively in a mental fashion than she had ever done 
in her life before, and the island itself, that she 
thought the object round which her forces gathered, 
was in reality only a background. But as yet she 
felt no hint of danger. 

The party camped out at last on the bank of the 
very stream which had hindered their progress, and 
which had given them an extra half-hour’s ride. 
The cart was awaiting them, and the men tethered 
the ponies and helped outspan, while the women 
laid the cloth. There was no kettle to boil, or tea 
to make, as in a cooler climate ; but the ice had 
stood the journey well, and the soda-water and 
mangoes came on as cold as if served at Govern- 
ment House. Mrs. Lewin seated herself on a fallen 
tree with Major Churton’s handkerchief spread over 
it as a safeguard for her frills, and fell to swizzling 
tinned butter with milk in the interests of the com- 
pany. At her feet Brissy, in an attitude as con- 
densed as a monkey’s, was slicing salad with dan- 
gerous activity. The group was gathered on open 
ground beyond the absolute tangle of wood which 
clothed the hillside, and which was still reeking from 
the rains. 

“ Pass the spiders, please ! ” said Chum absently, 
her eyes on the back of Captain Nugent’s flat head, 
where the black hair curled crisply. He looked up 
with a laugh in the young eyes that had seen too 


THE RAT-TRAP 


143 

much of this marvellous universe, and his white 
teeth flashed under his moustache, 

“ You’re dreaming, Mrs. Lewin ! ” 

For once Chum’s control of her blood failed her, 
and she flushed a little, conscious that he told the 
truth. Her thoughts were with Gregory and his 
probable prudence in turning back. 

“ It was appropriate, anyhow ! ” she retorted, 
shaking a huge specimen off her skirts. “ That’s 
not a tarantula, is it ? ” 

“ No ; common or garden bug, I think. Let’s 
put it on Miss Denver’s shoulder and hear her 
scream ! ” 

“ No, Captain Nugent ! Stop ! ” A sharp mem- 
ory of the hysterical quality of Miss Denver’s cry 
on the hillside made Chum the more imperious. 
Even in her own mind she did not form the fear 
that a very little would upset the girl’s balance to 
make men suspicious of she knew not what ; all 
she felt was that Miss Denver was not in a state of 
nerves for the endurance of spiders. There might 
be nothing in it, but she remembered with faint 
disgust Major Churton’s broad comment, “ She has 
the worried look of a girl who had been kissed.” 
Mrs. Lewin dropped the subject, and the spider to- 
gether, with distaste. Her mental attitude grew a 
little contemptuous. 

The next instant she had risen silently to her feet 
with a nearer and more bitter interest. Some one 
had said, “ Have a ceho, Ally ? ” — and she threaded 
her way through the chattering crowd round the 
table-cloth to the three men standing apart by the 
tethered ponies, without haste, and with a complete 
appearance of her errand being her own need. 

Ally, do get me some soda water ! ” said her 
voice behind her husband, as he vacillated on the 
brink of consent. “ I can’t wait for our meal to be 


144 


THE RAT-TRAP 


ready, Pm so thirsty. And don't put anything 
but ice into it ; it’s too hot.” 

Her candid eyes met his without a shadow of 
reproach; yet he coloured ever so slightly, and, 
shook his head at the man who had suggested’ 
ceho. As he halved the soda-water between them. 
Chum felt the old humiliation sweep back over her 
with fresh force. Who was she to think herself 
and Ally above these neighbours of theirs ? With 
this ugly possibility always dodging her steps, she 
was a woman who dared not leave her husband to 
judge for himself, but was forced to risk an inter- 
ference that might be rightly interpreted at any 
moment ! She stood there in dispirited silence, 
beautiful in her summer gown, but with earnest 
eyes that seemed out of place above the dainty 
muslin ; and for one mad moment she could have 
cursed the weakness of the man beside her which 
had spoiled her ideal. 

And it was just as she turned from him to save 
suspicion of her errand, that a sound of welcome 
arose from the group round the table-cloth. 

“ When did you turn up ? ” — “ How wet you are ? 
You must have swum the stream ! ” — “ There’s a 
compliment for you, Mrs. Gilderoy — nothing would 
keep him away ! ” — “ Well, you always were a man 
who surmounted difficulties ! ” 

It was Gregory, and his high riding boots were 
dripping with water ; but he laughed at the idea 
of cold. The pony took the stream at a point he 
knew of, he said ; there was no danger — only a 
ducking, to which he was used. He had been 
riding all through the rains, and forded worse 
floods. 

He was standing as Mrs. Lewin came back to 
the group, and remained so until she had sat down ; 
then he took a seat near her, but rather behind her 


THE RAT-TRAP 


145 


back, so that they could hardly be called com- 
panions. It would have been difficult to talk to her 
indeed, and she directed her conversation rather to 
Halton, who was facing her at a little distance. 
His brown eyes were very constantly on her face, 
and she parried their sentimentality with vague 
distrust. His departure was lending a new meaning 
to their old intimacy, and she had no room for it in 
her present life. Her fear for Ally, and her desire 
to hear if Gregory had any news, kept her mind at 
sufficient stretch. She enjoyed the mental activity 
in some strange fashion, in spite of the thread of 
pain running through it ; but her increasing appetite 
for power was not fed by the sentimental half-tones 
of her relations with Halton. 

As the conversation grew more general she was 
conscious of listening for a whisper behind her. 
Miss Denver’s laugh was loud above the rest. 
Some one challenged Hamilton Gurney to sing, 
and he affectedly refused for the sake of being 
pressed, but the voice he wanted did not join in the 
appeal. Mrs. Lewin was not conscious that they 
were urging him to anything in fact, for through 
the babel the Administrator had leaned forward and 
asked her for more bread and butter. She passed it 
back to him, and as he took it his voice breathed a 
whisper in her ear — 

“ I have heard from Capetown.” 

She dared not turn her head, but her nerves 
seemed strung as if by a strong stimulant. He 
folded the bread and butter deliberately, while she 
still held the plate, and his voice went on rapidly — 

“ They have given me carte blanche to do as I 
please.” 

Mr. Gurney had given up the hope of any per- 
suasion coming from Mrs. Lewin, and as he really 
wanted to sing, he screwed up the melancholy 


146 


THE RAT-TRAP 


banjo which he had sent on in the cart, and twanged 
an accompaniment. The first notes fell on deaf 
ears as far as Leoline was concerned, for her mind 
buzzed with possibilities. She had never dreamed 
that the Capetown Government would put such 
power into a man’s hands which the Home Author- 
ities had carefully tied. But she forgot how small a 
dot Key Island appeared to the largerJState, already 
worried with its own affairs. Carte blanche meant 
that Gregory might get to the root of the hashish 
trouble by burning the crops, or any other drastic 
measure, and this would be followed by probable 
consequences for which she knew some of his plans. 
He was nearer to the grip of his tiny kingdom, at 
which he aimed, than he had been two months ago. 
Mrs. Lewin drew her breath as if something had 
almost taken it away. She was excited and roused, 
and her blood was on fire. . . . 

Then Gurney’s voice stole in on her attention, 
loosening the restraint of her wijl-power still more 
in its subtle sweetness. Between the rush of two 
unusual emotions she felt bewildered, and clutched 
blindly after her usual self-control. Her eyes 
threatened to fill with ridiculous tears, and half-a- 
dozen men and women would see and misinterpret 
them. She flung herself a little into the shadow of 
a tree, leaning back with her hand on the ground 
behind her to support herself. It enabled her 
to turn her face so that she hoped it was partly 
masked. 

« All ye who seek for pleasure, 

Here find it without measure — 

No one to say 
A body nay, 

And naught but love and leisure ! ” 

Something hotter than tears seemed to flash across 
Leoline Lewin’s eyeball; the universe stood still. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


147 


soundless and sightless, then rushed on with 
clangor, and drowned every sound save the little 
trivial song which still tinkled so loudly in her 
stunned soul, ... for Evelyn Gregory had 
leaned back also, and laid his hand heavily over 
hers as it rested on the ground, out of sight of every 
one in the group. During the shock of the first 
five seconds she thought that he had done so un- 
consciously, and that the movement had been as 
natural as her own. She dared not move for fear 
of making him conscious, and waited for him to 
remove the heavy pressure that she might slide her 
own away, and never refer to it. . . . The 

seconds went on and on, each that passed accentu- 
ating a new beautiful terror and conviction in her 
mind. He did not move. Human flesh cannot 
press human flesh and be unconscious for so long. 
Her blood leapt to the revelation that they were 
man and woman, and felt, too, the humiliation of 
knowing that they were not sexless as friends. 

« All ye whose hearts are aching 
For somebody forsaking, 

We’ll hold you dear 
And heal you here, 

And send you home love-making ! ” 

Gregory removed his hand and sat up, as self- 
controlled as though he had never moved. An 
echo down the valley faintly took up the last pure 
notes and repeated them afar off — 

« Love-making ! ” 

Chum drew her knees up and clasped her hands 
round them as though she would gather her forces 
together ; but as she did so her eyes fell on the back 
of her hand, where a faint red flush marred the white 
skin. It told tales of the rough pressure she had 


148 


THE RAT-TRAP 


endured to her maddened mind, and she dropped it 
again to the ground — but this time out of reach — 
beside her. She glanced round the ring of faces 
and found no answering consciousness there. They 
were all trying the echo — shouting nonsense up the 
valley on the quiet evening air. She looked at 
Halton, and saw that he was looking down, ap- 
parently the most abstracted person present. But 
with a pang of fear she wondered if she would have 
read knowledge in the eyes veiled by his drooped 
lids. She was frightened, not only for herself, but 
for that other behind her, her woman’s intuition 
recognising the danger that lay under Halton’s 
quiet, and with characteristic courage she walked 
straight up to her danger to look it in the face. 

“ Are you going to ride home with me, Mr. Hal- 
ton ? ” she contrived to say, as the ponies were sad- 
dled up for the return. 

If you have made no other arrangement ? ” he 
said tentatively. There was nothing to take hold 
of in the words, because Major Churton had ridden 
with her before, and might claim the privilege again. 
But she caught a covert insinuation and scored up 
an unpaid grudge against him. 

“ I am not using you to escape an unwel- 
come cavalier ! ” she said, as if accepting his own 
idea. 

“ What an unpleasant suggestion ! I shall be 
wondering all the way which man is thirsting for 
my blood.” 

It would be a better compliment if you took it 
for granted that they were all envious. You are 
out of practice, Mr. Halton.” 

I have had none of late.” 

Never mind ; use the present opportunity on 
my gown ! ” 

“ It is charming, of course ! ” he said, as he ar- 


THE RAT-TRAP 


149 


ranged the blanket over Liscarton’s streaked shoul- 
ders, and pulled the girth tight. << And no other 
lady would have dared to risk it on a hot pony, 
would they ? ” 

“ I told my husband that I wished to leave a good 
impression on your mind ! ” 

Really ? But why struggle for the inevitable ? 
I am all the more flattered though, of course. It is 
not every day that a lady makes herself smart for 
my especial benefit.” 

“ Oh, please don’t ! ” said Chum, as she lifted her- 
self easily into the saddle. “ Smart is now a word 
sacred to the middle classes, to whom it means in- 
ferior silks and strings of imitation beads ! ” 

“ So bad as that ? ” 

Yes, really. And the same degree of cheap- 
ness is expressed in the word ‘ clever ’ — its mental 
equivalent. Perhaps on the whole it is best summed 
up in the draper’s ideal of one and elevenpence 
halfpenny ! ” 

“ I am so glad you did not say three farthings ! ” 

“ We never have such things now,” sighed Mrs. 
Lewin. “ There is a farthing, of course — but they 
are rapidly becoming relics. You get a packet of 
very bad pins, or a pencil that you particularly don’t 
want, for the odd number.” 

His laugh sounded like the earlier terms of their 
acquaintance, and she congratulated herself on her 
stroke of policy in reannexing him for this occasion. 
Never once had her eyes met Gregory’s since that 
revelation during Gurney’s song, and she had not 
spoken to him. As they rode back through the 
falling dusk she fenced with Halton as of old, re- 
treating and advancing like the figure of a mental 
quadrille, and was surprised to find it tedious. Had 
the stronger personality that was even now shadow- 
ing her made the other man seem slight, or was 


THE RAT-TRAP 


150 

Halton only attractive to a certain point, after 
which he could only repeat himself ? It seemed to 
her that realities had superseded the dilettantism 
of their brain flirtations, and made them a tiresome 
waste of time. 

As they rode through Port Victoria, and turned 
off on the Government House road, she missed Ally 
and learned that he had ridden home with his chief, 
and would come on to the bungalow afterwards, 
doubtless. 

“ I saw them turn up the avenue ; they were in 
front of us,” Halton said quietly. “ Did you not 
see them ? ” 

She thought he looked at her. 

“ I don’t always see my husband ! ” said Mrs. 
Lewin adroitly. ** Life would be so fatiguing if one 
could not sometimes close one’s eyes, wouldn’t it ? ” 

“ Or substitute another object ? ” said Halton, as 
they drew rein. “ The mail comes in to-morrow, 
and I expect to leave in her the day after, Mrs. 
Lewin. But I hope this is not good-bye ? ” 

I am coming to see you off, of course ! I will 
bring you one of Ally’s pocket handkerchiefs.” 

“ To wave, or to weep in ? ” 

Whichever you prefer. Personally, I want to 
murder people who weep over me ; but if you like 
it, I will imitate the late rains.” 

“ I would not cost you a tear ! ” he said, with a 
sudden note of feeling in his voice that vaguely 
surprised her. ‘‘ If your future were in hands, 
there would be very little fear for it.” 

He rode away into the darkness without any 
further farewell, while Mrs. Lewin pondered his 
words with a fresh misgiving. When Ally came in 
half-an-hour later, he told her — as he usually did 
when it was so — that Halton had been speaking of 
her, 


THE RAT-TRAP 


151 

“ I hope he was admiring me ! ” said Chum 
brightly. “ But he could hardly do less — to you.” 

“ He said you were very clever ! ” said Ally 
doubtfully. Who likes his wife to be called clever ? 

“ One and elevenpence halfpenny ! ” murmured 
Chum absently. “ I did hope I was worth two 
shillings, anyway.” 

“ And sma ” 

** Ally, if you say smart too, I shall have Mr. 
Halton up for libel ! ” said Mrs. Lewin indignantly. 

Ally laughed. “ Gregory's Powder didn’t say 
anything,” he remarked. “ I don’t think you’ve 
made much impression there, in spite of your 
earnest efforts, you know. Chum.” 

Mrs. Lewin looked down absently at the back of 
her hand, almost as if she expected to see some- 
thing there ; but her real answer came later, as she 
kissed her husband and said good-night. 

“ Ally,” she said slowly, turning back at the 
door, “ do you mind? It’s so hot to-night ! And 
you are restless, and have kept me awake lately ! ” 

Alaric finished his whiskey and soda rather 
soberly. “ Oh ! ” he said. “ All right. I’ll sleep 
in the dressing-room ” 

He heard Leoline enter her own room and turn 
the key in the lock, and he wondered in his stupid 
handsome head that she should so insist on privacy. 
Then he cheered up, had another whiskey, and sup- 
posed she had a headache. A man may distrust 
his mistress if she locks him out, and knows how to 
translate his own inclination to sleep in the dress- 
ing-room. But the tertium quid of his wife’s case 
is always a headache. 


CHAPTER X 


“ Ce que femme veut, Dieu le veut .” — French Proverb. 


The restless, tropical night seemed full of wings 
to Leoline’s ears as she lay on her back with hands 
clasped under her fragrant hair, and her wide eyes 
looking up into the bridal fall of the mosquito net. 
In spite of being alone she had gained no hint of 
sleep, nor had she expected it. The heat was 
intense, even though the bungalow was some way 
above the town up on the hillside, and the heavi- 
ness of the rains still seemed to hang in the air. 
The complaining, vicious note of a mosquito 
haunted the safe curtains, through which he could 
not find an entrance ; and, as if in contempt of him, 
Leoline had flung off the covering sheet, and where 
the soft frills fell back her white body tempted the 
angry insect with sweets out of reach. It would 
have been a pity to mark that perfect skin ; but 
the mosquito thought of his own desire above all 
artistic considerations — just as that much higher 
creation called Man might do if, for instance, he 
wished to feel the pressure of his own hand on 
hers. 

Mrs. Lewin was hardly thinking as the long 
hours wore to morning, and the flutter of moths’ 
wings gave way to that of humming-birds, who 
had built their nests below the stoep, — she was 
simply suffering. It seemed to her that her mind 

152 


THE RAT-TRAP 


153 


was one blind pain and a bewildering humiliation. 
For it was not the thing in itself that horrified her 
— a man’s hand laid over hers for some sixty- 
seconds seemed a trivial thing enough — but what 
it meant. She who had unconsciously put herself 
on a pedestal, found that she had fallen, not by 
the unimportant act but by the revelation it had 
brought of her own emotions. She had not been 
cool under Gregory’s touch ; if she had she would 
have brushed the incident aside as a thing of no 
consequence, tiresome but to be disregarded ; her 
blood had answered his, and beat in her veins, and 
made her whole body thrill and sicken as no touch 
had ever done before. A knowledge that she 
could no longer deny to herself dismayed her, 
showing her this first touch as the prelude to more 
that she dared not contemplate. It was the thin 
end of the wedge, the passing of a boundary line to 
a path that might lead her — anywhere. She knew 
it, and in the warm, soft darkness she did not lie to 
herself as she might have done in the decent day. 
A married worrian is somewhat defenceless against 
herself, for she is forced to acknowledge her own 
emotions, and has legitimised their classification. 
While she is unmarried — whether by law or slighter 
bonds — she can theorise, but she can always excuse 
herself by saying that she does not know the 
meaning of her sex. Nor in a certain degree does 
she. It is, however, her husband’s useful province 
to deprive her of such a defence, and to make her 
horribly conscious of the meaning of starting pulses 
and too generous blood. 

Ally had once told Chum, with a chuckle, that 
she took to married life as a duck takes to water. 
And, in truth, she did not quarrel with nature any 
more than any other healthy, clear-minded wife 
whose womanhood is ripe. But there was a nicety 


154 


THE RAT-TRAP 


about her that was content to look on passion as 
a thing incidental to married life, but not to be 
dwelt upon, and her bodily relations with Alaric 
had never seemed to her of so much importance as 
those of her mind. There was again a hint of 
superiority in this, for she saw other women hold- 
ing out grosser inducements to charm than she 
professed, and made a somewhat fastidious use of 
her physical advantages by contrast. 

For once, and quite suddenly, it seemed to her 
that this attitude had after all been false. If she 
wore her frocks with a daintier grace than other 
women, did it not suggest that what lay beneath 
was daintier too? She thought with disgust of 
Mrs. Clayton’s bodices being actually unlaced ; 
but her own bodices had been quite as tempting 
to the audacity of men’s thoughts, and she had 
meant them to be so. It was only that she 
promised and did not perform, while other women 
enjoyed the fulfilment of their own allurements. 
No man could say a word of her as they might of 
Beatrix Denver ; but how many had envied Ally 
to the extent of fancying themselves in his place 
for one wicked blissful moment ? And she had 
regarded that as legitimate, and a rightful compli- 
ment to them both. 

Oh, but what did it matter, compared to this new 
fire in her veins — this mad possibility of painful 
happiness that was surely not sane, for she could 
find no reason to excuse it. Every yearning 
instinct of her, brain, body, and soul, seemed 
drawn out, beyond her power to will to restrain 
it, to a man who was not her husband, and who 
had not even such attractions as might excuse a 
physical passion. She thought of Ally’s handsome 
face, and easy, comfortable personality, contrasted 
with Evelyn Gregory’s harsh features and difficult 


THE RAT-TRAP 


155 


nature. There would be nothing comfortable in a 
life with Gregory, unless indeed a woman were so 
at one with him as for their two personalities to 
harmonise without a discordant note. He would 
be overbearing and exacting, but strong both for 
himself and her ; there came the renewed leap of 
heart, as all the woman in her craved for a master. 
She was tired of her disillusion, and of being the 
one to guide and act both at once. Gregory had 
appealed to her through the feeling of reliance 
with which he had filled her. There had been the 
snare and the excuse, if an excuse were possible 
for a feeling which seemed to her outside the pale 
of argument. 

“ What does it matter,” she thought wearily, 
“ since I am proved a fraud on all accounts. I am 
not what I thought I was — all my theories with re- 
gard to myself seem to have been mere vapours to 
vanish with the first ray of sun. But I can fight 
still — I can — -I can.” 

She set her little white teeth, and gripped the pain 
as though it were a tangible thing. And then, be- 
cause she was just a good girl and no heroine, she 
threw aside the mosquito net and knelt down beside 
the bed to pray to a God whom she believed had 
sent an ugly tragedy into her life, not to take it 
away, but to help her to hide it after the fashion of 
women. She was ready to trust Him where she no 
longer trusted herself, and having certain sturdy 
principles born and bred in her, she had not even 
the advantage of excusing self-indulgence upon the 
plea of possessing the “ artistic temperament,” which 
is a very convenient back door for immorality to 
the modern woman.' It generally means lack of 
exercise and hysteria ; but Leoline Lewin’s diges- 
tion being a good one, she had no claim to such an 
immunity from inconvenient virtue. 


156 


THE RAT-TRAP 


Towards morning she fell asleep, but not into the 
same sound oblivion as on the night when Ally lay 
in a drunken slumber next door. She could control 
her waking thoughts, but her dreams were cruel, 
and were haunted by such forbidden joy as made 
her glad when the broad sun struck through the Vene- 
tian shutters and brought the sick, hot day. 

The mail came in that morning, and all Port Vic- 
toria went down to the harbour to meet it. The 
town was cut off from all save chance communica- 
tion with the outer world for a whole month, and 
so the arrival of news was a greater event than in a 
larger colony. The wharf was a rendezvous, there- 
fore, on mail days, and the U.C.L. officers of the in- 
coming boat could have laid themselves up with ceho 
in the first half-hour, if they had accepted all the 
hospitality offered them, and drunk the liqueur fast 
enough. Leoline rode down to town early, and sat 
patiently on Liscarton’s back among the coal-dust 
and the smell of fessikh, or salted fish, which is as 
the smell of unutterable decay, and believed by 
many to be nothing but dried nigger, and high 
game at that. The little colony gathered gradually 
about her, and for the first time the sameness of the 
faces struck her with a kind of horror. She had 
met them over and over again, and they had not so 
oppressed her ; now she realised that there were 
only some forty white people in the immediate 
neighbourhood to know, and that she must go on 
meeting them for all the remainder of the time that 
Ally was stationed there, until the social life seemed 
like a circle. There were one or tw'o newer faces 
out at China Town, or Port Albert, perhaps, — a 
Planter or so scattered beyond the Pass or up on 
the Table-land ; but even these belonged to the same 
community. She looked at the blue bay, the forest 
of masts, the one big ship at the quay, the line of 


THE RAT-TRAP 


157 


ravenalas along the shore with their lifted fans like 
spread fingers, the warm wooded hills that shut it 
all in, — and Halton’s words returned to her with 
meaning for the first time. — 

“We are in a rat-trap ! ” 

A sort of terror seized her, a feeling that she 
must get away from the dangerous monotony of it 
all. She could face and wrestle with the situation 
threatening her at the moment, while her senses 
were still alert with the shock of her awakening ; 
but how would it be as the months rolled on, and 
time inevitably lessened her sense of danger and 
dulled her watchfulness ! She began to realise that 
Ally had not been all to blame for his weakness, 
and that Miss Denver had no other distraction for 
her idle days ; they might both be of feebler na- 
tures than her own, but at least there were extenu- 
ating circumstances. She could think that with 
broader possibilities they might have made a better 
fight for it. 

“We are in a rat-trap ! ” 

She looked round her slowly, at the familiar fig- 
ures in the flaccid sunlight, and wished that she did 
not know every face turned to her. The very smile 
that came inevitably as their eyes met seemed a 
weary proof of having them before her yesterday, 
and to-day, and to-morrow. There was Mrs. Gil- 
deroy, in an old riding skirt that smacked forlornly 
of Bond Street long ago, and a limp white shirt ; 
there was her husband, equally inevitable, in a grey 
flannel suit, with a Madras helmet hiding his face 
down to the ragged tawny moustache. As if by 
common consent they made straight for Leoline, 
who was seized with a wild impulse to pull Liscar- 
ton round and ride out of the sameness of the scene. 
She even thought she knew the very words they 
said before they uttered them. 


58 


THE RAT-TRAP 


How are you, my dear ? " Mrs. Gilderoy spoke 
first Anything left of you from yesterday ? I 
shall take a month to recover. I always wonder, 
after we have exerted ourselves like that to bore 
our friends, why we did it. So does Wray ; he 
thinks he lost several pounds from that ride down 
to the valley.” 

“ I felt it dripping away,” said Captain Gilderoy 
in his pleasant voice. “ I have lost something 
like three stone since I came to this abominable 
hole.” 

« It was a terribly hot night,” said Chum, striving 
for her usual manner by instinct. “ I think the heat 
increases.” 

“ It does not vary much in the tropics,” said Mrs. 
Gilderoy, shrugging her shoulders. I have not 
been dry for eighteen months, but I am growing 
used to it. Oh, how I envy the Commissioner ! 
Think of going Home, and the East winds, and sit- 
ting on deck to wait for the first shiver ! ” 

“ A jacket would be quite an excitement, wouldn’t 
it? And I believe it would be a new experience to 
catch cold. Do you notice that no one catches 
cold here? We go down with influenza, and chills, 
and fever, and horrid things like that, but sneezing 
is a lost art ! ” 

“ You have been out nine months, haven’t you. 
Chum, and you are beginning to feel it? You did 
not take that view on your arrival, did you ? At 
first sight the Station strikes you as a merry little 
place, where we all wear white clothes and pretend 
that we like each other.” 

“ And by-and-by we realise the coal-dust,” said 
Mrs. Lewin, with veiled bitterness. “ You are quite 
right — one easily gets to feel soiled in Port Vic- 
toria ! ” 

“ I think when the rains come the wet heat oozes 


THE RAT-TRAP 


159 

into one’s bones somehow. You will have to go 
up to Victoria if you feel limp.” 

“ We ought to make up a party,” said Captain 
Gilderoy. “ Mrs. Clayton would join with pleasure, 
I am sure, and Miss Denver. They had great 
games there last year — some of the men from ‘ By- 
Jovey’ got leave and went too. Have you had 
your mail yet? We can sit here in comfort 
while Wray goes and gets them for us, if you 
like.” 

“ Thanks. Don’t bring my husband’s, though, 
please. Captain Gilderoy. He likes to fetch his 
mail himself.” 

The post-office was close to the wharf, behind a 
block of store-houses, where the big firms received 
their imports and placed them for unpacking. 
Captain Gilderoy disappeared behind a wall of 
coal, and Mrs. Gilderoy and Mrs. Lewin sat still on 
their ponies in the shade, now chatting to some ac- 
quaintance who had joined them, now watching the 
cargo being dumped down into the grit and dirt of 
the quay. 

“We can go on board as soon as that mess is 
cleared off!” said Mrs. Gilderoy, with a nod to- 
wards the bales that would feed her during the next 
month. “ But it is so uncomfortable while they are 
all running about and falling over each other round 
the hatches. Mrs. Ritchie Stern is on board. Her 
husband’s boat is coming in to-day to coal, she 
says, and she followed him in the mail. They will 
be here for some days. Captain Nugent is bursting 
with excitement, and planning a ball for every night 
that they spend here I ” 

“ Heaven help them I ” said Chum, laughing. 
“ What is Captain Stern’s boat ? ” 

“ The Greville, I think.” She dropped her voice 
a note lower, and leaned over her saddle. “ Have 


i6o THE RAT-TRAP 

you heard that there is trouble on the East Coast, 
up at Port Cecil ? ” 

“No!” Something in the tone startled Chum, 
though the words meant nothing to her. “ Port 
Cecil 1 ” she repeated vaguely. “ Is that ” 

“ No, not in Key Island at all — on the African 
coast, in British East Africa, and dangerously near 
the German frontier. I believe it never has been 
rightly settled as to whether Port Cecil is British or 
German territory. I wish they had handed it over 
with Mafia. It would be so much more sensible I 
There is nothing officially stated, but a rumour of 
trouble has leaked out. The Capetown authorities 
have cabled through to our man to send some one 
up at once. You see, it is so much nearer than it 
would be for them, and it’s a very delicate kind of 
mission. Wray calls it handling a merekat with 
boxing-gloves on ! We can’t offend the natives, 
and we won’t offend Germany for some reason just 
now. It’s to be all tact and no soldiers this time.” 

“ Then Mr. Halton is the right man to go.” 

“ Undoubtedly ; and as Gregory has his own 
little threatened rows to amuse him, I suppose they 
think at Capetown that it’s safe to let him use his 
own discretion as to who he sends. Otherwise I 
should be afraid of his going himself and setting 
the country in a blaze, if I were the man above 
him.” 

“ I don’t think he would do that while the natives 
here seem still so unsettled. But what a disappoint- 
ment for Mr. Halton I He told me he was longing 
to get home.” 

“ Oh, my dear, it’s awful I The town is not only 
the Naboth’s vineyard of our coast and Germany’s, 
but it is unhealthy. They say the white soldiers 
can hardly live there. Do you know that Wray 
thinks they will send up the 28th from Natal ? ” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


i6i 


“ Ally’s regiment ! But I thought there was to 
be no fighting ? ” 

“ No ; but they must have soldiers in case of ac- 
cidents, and they want to treat Port Cecil as sepa- 
rate from the rest of the Protectorate. It was not 
included in the treaty of 1895, oi" some such bungle, 
and so there is always being a row about it. Wray 
tried to explain it to me, but I never can under- 
stand. Anyhow, it is a diplomatic mission, and 
enough to turn Mr. Halton’s hair grey, unless he 
knows something about the place. Has he ever 
been in that part ? ” 

“ I don’t think so ; but Mr. Gregory spoke one 
day of a friend of his — a man he seems to think 
very able — who has been consul, or something of 
that sort, there for years. I wonder that the Gov- 
ernment did not leave him to settle matters.” 

My dear Chum, don’t you know that our Gov- 
ernment never does use the man on the spot who 
has gained experience and really could manage? 
The instant there is trouble they send some one 
who has never heard of the place, and is bound to 
blunder at first, and they ‘ commission him to in- 
quire,’ etc. We are mad on commissions. It’s a 
national disease. I think sometimes that it’s a farce 
we play to gain them.” 

Here comes Captain Gilderoy,” said Mrs. Lewin 
absently. She was wondering if this new billet 
would keep Halton longer in Key Island, for she 
felt that the sooner he went the safer she should be. 
Yet he was emphatically the only man at hand 
whom Gregory had to send to Port Cecil, for Arthur 
White was no diplomatist, and Major Churton’s 
position so strictly military as to make his presence 
a menace. Captain Gilderoy handed her two 
letters — one from her home, far off in the hunting 
county of Leicestershire, and one in the hand-writ- 


i 62 


THE RAT-TRAP 


ing of an old school friend, who had since married 
a man high in authority, and had a dangerous desire 
to dabble in state-craft. She knew of appointments 
and the pulling of strings before the Gazette had 
ratified them, and her wisdom was a thing that even 
her husband sometimes feared. It chanced that 
Leoline Lewin opened this letter before her father’s, 
read the first few sentences, which were merely a 
heading, and suddenly became immersed, to the ex- 
clusion even of the smell of fissikh and the ever- 
recurring faces around her. 

“ But my real news,” wrote Chum’s school-mate, 
“ refers to you, or, I hope, will do so if you have 
only gained the good-will of your Administrator. 
Cyril Ernest has come into the Rignold title, and 
that means resigning his commission and going into 
Parliament — he was always a politician rather than 
a soldier. He was A.D.C. to old Sir Geoffrey 
Vaughan, who is a great crony of mine. I met the 
old fellow at Victoria House the other night, and 
buttonholed him in a corner. Don’t tell me I am 
not a good friend. Chum, for I thought of you at 
once, and tried to impress Ally’s virtues on him. 
He hummed and hawed a little, but he remembered 
Ally ; he said there were two nice boys to whom 
he gave the preference — your husband and Brissy 
Nugent, who, I think, was at Sandhurst with him. 
I am afraid I belittled Brissy in your interest. It is 
so unfortunate that they are stationed at the same 
place, for I could gain no absolute promise from Sir 
Geoffrey. All he would say was that he would 
leave it to Evelyn Gregory to give the casting vote, 
and he has written to him unofficially. Weaker 
men are fond of leaving the decision with Gregory. 
Now, my dear girl, it all depends on you. You 
must manage your man in office so that he shall 
recommend Ally, and not Captain Nugent. It is. a 


THE RAT-TRAP 


163 


settled thing that Sir Geoffrey will go to Malta, un- 
less he has something even better — a home com- 
mand, it might be. Don’t believe any one who 
talks about the African generals; I know better. 
Even my husband is not in my confidence about 
the appointment yet, but you may take my word 
for it, and I am telling you because it gives you a 
start over Mrs. Nugent — I never did like that 
woman — and you are on the spot, too, and she is 
not. I have only just time to catch the mail,” etc. 

Mrs. Lewin turned the pages breathlessly, and 
the lines danced before her eyes. Here were two 
appointments confidentially placed in the hands of 
the man Government hardly professed to trust ; but 
she was not thinking of the unofficial way in which 
the Empire was really worked, or the incalculable 
value of the force which is politely termed “ Influ- 
ence.” Her personal stake in the matter drove even 
the question of the trouble in East Africa out of her 
head, though before her friend’s letter she was 
keenly interested in it as in some sort concerning 
Gregory. She saw only that here was the escape 
for which she had prayed, and the old French say- 
ing, that “ What a woman wishes, God wishes,” re- 
curred to her mind like a blessing. Malta or Eng- 
land — the words spelt rescue, however one read 
them. Her eyes followed every line of the great 
quiescent liner hungrily, while, in her fevered 
fancy, she saw it carrying her out of danger — her 
and Ally together — beyond the rat-trap where the 
rats were already beginning to menace each other 
because they could not get out. 

Surely Ally’s appointment must be a foregone 
conclusion ! She had already done what her friend 
counselled, in her forethought for the future, and 
had gained the ear of the Administrator. In their 
increasing confidence she had spoken frankly though 


164 


THE RAT-TRAP 


delicately of her husband, and had acknowledged 
that she was ambitious for him, and wished him to 
rise. And Gregory had sympathised, even though 
he might not believe in Ally’s capabilities. Surely 
he would help her ! 

She did not trouble over Brissy much as a rival, 
for Evelyn Gregory thought no more of him than 
of his A.D.C. Brissy was not the stumbling-block 
in the way of success — it was unfortunately Ally 
himself who was his own enemy. But forewarned 
is forearmed, and she must this time force him to a 
strategic management of his chief for both their 
sakes. Her very muscles felt tense and braced for 
the effort, as she sat in the shade of the coal walls, 
mechanically nodding and smiling at the people 
round her. As soon as might be she would get out 
of all this, and ride home and wait for Ally. They 
must talk it over, and arrange the campaign the 
instant they could do so without arousing suspicion. 
She wondered if her own precious news had leaked 
out ” as well as the African appointment ; but it 
was unlikely. The woman who had told her prided 
herself on knowing such secrets long before they 
were even private property. 

On the further side of the wharf Brissy Nugent 
himself was reading stale news from an old paper 
with the avidity of a starved dog, while he also 
waited to go on board the mail boat ; but the 
Naval and Military intelligence told him nothing 
of his own possible fortune, and in fact he never 
dreamed of gaining any advantage from the paper 
beyond a passing amusement. He was sitting on 
a pile of logwood waiting for shipment in a sailing 
vessel, with a Madras helmet spread like an um- 
brella over his head and shoulders, side by side with 
Clayton of the A.S.C. 

“I see that Bobs was talking to the Sandhurst 


THE RAT-TRAP 


165 

Cadets the other day,” said Clayton, turning his 
own paper, posted from England a month since, 
“ and he said it was all nonsense to suppose that no 
man can get on in the Army without influence. 
My firm conviction is that without influence in the 
Army one might as well make up one’s mind to 
achieve nothing but the ordinary promotion which 
comes with time.” 

“ Oh, the system which should be adopted is to 
do away with rewards altogether,” said Nugent 
simply. “ Either a man does his duty, or he does 
not. If he does, well and good. If he doesn’t, then 
he ought to be kicked out.” His soulless eyes went 
out over the paper he was holding in search of his 
acquaintance, and he saluted Miss Denver, who 
was passing on her pony, with a flash of white 
teeth under his black moustache. He was more 
interested in her at the moment than in what he 
was saying, albeit it was his honest conviction. 

“ That’s a beautifully simple creed, Brissy, and I 
have no doubt that if it were adopted there would 
be fewer of the absolutely useless men who encum- 
ber the Service. They do nothing either one way 
or the other ; they usually have money, are in no 
way dependent on their profession, and care noth- 
ing for it, except in so far as it affords them amuse- 
ment. There’s a case not five miles from here ! ” 
he added significantly. 

“ You mean old Ally Sloper. Yes, I don’t sup- 
pose he’ll ever do much. But, then, he don’t need 
to.” 

“ Exactly ! ” said Clayton with frank bitterness. 

And because he hasn’t got it in him to push him- 
self, a beneficent Providence has given him friends 
in office, and a wife with brains and ambition. 
That woman means him to get on, Brissy, and she 
could make something even of you or me.” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


1 66 

I saw her here a moment ago/’ said Brissy, to 
whom abstract references always suggested actual 
things. She was on Liscarton, by the coal heap 
over there. She seems to have gone now ! ” 

Mrs. Lewin’s place was indeed empty, but he did 
not know in what relation that affected him. For 
Chum had gone home, and when Captain Lewin 
appeared among the chattering crowd on the wharf, 
he learned from the Gilderoys that she had left a 
message for him to the effect that heat and coal- 
dust threatened to transform her to a nigger, but 
he would find her cleaned and awaiting him at 
luncheon time. Ally, jocund and social, moved 
among his friends, as pleased to be off work as a 
school-boy out of school. 

“ Chum’s off colour a bit, I think,” he said confi- 
dentially to Diana Churton. “ She couldn’t sleep 
last night for the heat.” 

We’ll get out to Vohitra — it’s about time,” said 
Di good-naturedly. “ I’m thinking of making up 
a party. You can’t get back to lunch at the 
bungalow. Ally ; it’s too late. Come on board the 
mail, and see Mrs. Ritchie Stern. The Greville has 
just passed the Gates.” 

Ally vacillated, and looked at his watch. “ Chum 
expected me to lunch at home ! ” he said. 

“ Send Brissy in your place ! ” said Di, with a 
short laugh. “ No, tell Bute ; he’s got to ride up to 
Government House, and he’ll take a message.” 

“I’ll tell you what,” said Ally, and his face 
cleared to its own gay good-humour, “ I’ll tele- 
phone ; I can ring up from the post-ofifice. Wait 
for me, Di, and we’ll go on board together.” 


1 


CHAPTER XI 


J “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more 
hope of a fool than of him ! ” — Jewish Proverb. 

I THINK it is the Chinese who have a proverb that 
says : “To expect one who does not come, to eat 
and not to be satisfied, and to work for years and 
get no promotion, are three things which are enough 
to kill a man.” Mrs. Lewin had been proving the 
wearing process of the first clause for a good half- 
hour, before the telephone bell rang, and her hus- 
band’s voice informed her that he was detained, and 
— er — awfully sorry, but would not be in to lunch. 
“ I’ll come up later — have you got a headache. 
Chum ? ” said the strong tones, muffled to half their 
weight like a ventriloquist’s. 

The “ er ” was a fatal hesitation, and struck Mrs. 
Lewin’s keenness of perception. Ally had not been 
detained by duty as he wished her to imagine — he 
was lunching on board the mail boat, catching at 
the nearest pleasure as usual, to his own detriment 
and hers. P'or a minute a wave of very human 
irritation prompted her to let him go his own way. 
Why should she for ever stand between him and 
retribution ? She was tired, and inclination 
prompted her to let the struggle go, and take con- 
sequences as easily and without regret as he did. 
Then with another change of mood she saw that 
Ally’s lack of purpose was no excuse for her own. 
The very things she saw and condemned in him 
were a spur to her to be on her own guard. The 
danger was hers as well as his — the object to be 
167 


THE RAT-TRAP 


1 68 

gained her own safety too. She could let no chance 
go by, and the feeblest of human excuses always is, 
“ I am no worse than my neighbours.” It all passed 
over her conscious mind while she stood with the 
little apparatus still in her hands. 

“ No, I’ve no headache — I’m all right,” she said 
quietly. “ But come up after lunch, Ally — I want 
to see you. It’s important — but don’t say anything 
to any one. Tell them I am seedy if you like, and 
that you must get back.” 

She wondered as she heard his half-uneasy Yes, 
of course I’ll come the minute I can,” if there were 
any one standing near him. One could hear too 
much in a public place, if one were only near the 
instrument. Well, it could not be helped, and after 
all they might think it was a private matter — some- 
thing contained in her own home mail. But in Key 
Island every one’s business is of importance to dis- 
cuss for lack of one’s own, and even her own 
guarded sentences would have grown to a state 
secret before nightfall, had they been overhead. 

Ally was so relieved to be easily excused that he 
really did as he had promised, and rode up before 
three o’clock, feeling a virtuous husband and deserv- 
ing of much welcome and something to drink, for 
he was really very hot. He brought many invita- 
tions to consider themselves engaged for the next 
two days, beginning with a dance that night at the 
Wessex Mess, and including a breakfast party and 
two luncheons, for the mail boat and the Greville 
were both busy in friendly rivalry. The projected 
gaiety was driven out of his head, however, by his 
wife’s private news, and he was so really engrossed 
with the possibility of their removal, that Chum 
forgave him his defection from lunch, and came 
over and sat on the arm of his chair, while he read 
her friend’s letter. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


169 


** Great Scot, what luck ! ” he said with boyish 
excitement. “ Chum, we must manage it, if you 
have to go on your knees to Gregory’s Powder, and 
I to lick old Sir Geoffrey’s boots ! Malta or a 
home station — thank Heaven the old boy always 
liked me ! ” 

“ Did he like Brissy as well ? ” said Leoline anx- 
iously, and without any enmity towards Brissy, 
feeling glad of his shortcomings. “ Ally, he can'^ 
have thought Brissy as nice as you ! ” 

“ Poor old Bristles ! No, I do think I showed up 
rather well against him, you know. Chum. Any- 
how it seems to rest with Gregory. What a good 
stroke that was of yours to play up to him, old girl ! 
You always said he was a good man to have be- 
hind you — I think you’re the smartest Chum a fel- 
low ever married ! No, you don’t like that word, 
do you — I mean you’re the quickest, and the most 
farseeing ” 

He broke off to laugh and put his arm round her 
as she leaned over his shoulder, giving her a boyish 
hug that seemed to take her breath away, for she 
freed herself of him with a protest like a cry. 

“Don’t, Ally ! — let me get up — I can’t breathe ! — 
No, it’s nothing. Yes, of course we must have the 
appointment — it’s all in your hands now.” 

“ Mine ! It’s much better in yours ” 

« No ! — no ! — you must make a good impression, 
somehow. I am sure the Administrator likes you 
for yourself — every one does. It’s only that you 
will shirk, that annoys him. Don’t play tennis 
or polo quite so much — try and seem to have 
grasped the situation here — I’ll coach you. We 
must get away — oh, we must have that appoint- 
ment ! ” 

She spoke breathlessly, but he was excited also, 
and seemed to catch more fire from her. His face 


170 


THE RAT-TRAP 


only fell once as he thought of the Greville and 
mail boat festivities. 

“By Jove! and this was to be a week, too! 
Never mind — I’ll give up most of it and stick to 
business. You’re quite right, Chum — I’ll be seized 
with a savage desire to get things properly settled 
up before Halton goes. I would grub in corre- 
spondence and red tape if only it would ensure my 
getting out of this beastly island ! ” 

“ Don’t overdo it,” said Mrs. Lewin nervously. 
“ He is so quick to see through people. Ally, I 
wonder if he will send Mr. Halton to Port Cecil ? 
I suppose you’ve heard of that — isn’t it strange that 
Mr. Gregory should have the nomination of both 
men to these appointments ! ” 

“ Oh I don’t care if the whole of East Africa is 
put into Halton’s hands, so long as I get the other 
show. Think of it. Chum — home leave, food that 
isn’t tinned, lots going on, and some sport again ! 
Salama for old Sir Geoffrey ! ” 

He caught her round the waist, to the amazement 
of Abdallah, who was bringing in the tea, and 
waltzed her round the room, steering through the 
scattered chairs and tables and even into the next 
room with a dexterity that made her laugh until 
she could not keep pace with him, and dropped on 
to the sofa leaving Ally to finish with a grand pas 
seul that landed him with a thud against the butler’s 
portly person. Chum sat on the sofa, wiping her 
eyes rather hysterically, while Ally and Abdallah 
sorted themselves ; and then they drank their tea 
with a special allowance of sugar in it for the honour 
of the occasion. 

“ When we get to Malta,” said Chum seriously, 
“ we will have cream too, as well as milk — can you 
get cream in Malta, Ally ? — and it shall be real tea, 
up from India, not this nasty stuff from Natal.” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


171 


In the background of her mind she was always con- 
scious of a sense of reluctance, a desire that did 
not accord with her earnest assertions of delight in 
leaving Key Island. Some deep root in her very 
nature seemed dragging her back whenever she 
spoke of her departure, and the more she felt it the 
more she repeated the idea as if to get used to it. 
It was a thing she had to fight, and she faced it 
desperately in this its very beginning. 

It haunted her through the dance that night, and 
the whirl of flying feet round the long mess-room. 
It was too hot for dancing, but Mrs. Lewin did not 
seem to feel the heat; she was indefatigable, and 
waltzed through the programme, looking as cool and 
dry at the end of the evening as at the beginning 
which is a great feat for a Maitso dance. Leoline 
wondered if this were the last time she should sit 
out on the steps of the Mess, or keep time to the 
Gunners’ band, — and thrust the thought away. It 
was an ever recurring ghost, that “ last time,” and 
stung most keenly, strange to say, through an in- 
troduction to the guests of the evening. Captain and 
Mrs. Ritchie Stern. Blanche Stern had very large 
and searching eyes of a blue that mocked the sea — 
wholesome eyes, that seemed never to have reflected 
the image of any man save her husband, and indeed 
the only thing that Mrs. Gilderoy could find to say 
of her was that she posed as being in love with 
Ritchie Stern to fatiguing extent. In an assembly 
of auctioned men and assorted wives, she was 
perhaps rather unlikely ; but as their eyes met, Mrs. 
Lewin put her hand to the diamond pendant at her 
throat with a little start, and a choking feeling that 
Mrs. Stern was divining her secret mind. They had 
been introduced in a pause between the dances, and 
were leaning over the wooden railing of the stoep 
side by side, while their respective partners fought 


172 


THE RAT-TRAP 


for ices on their behalf. No African stoep should 
have a railing of course, but Key Island has im- 
proved upon its model in its own opinion, and has 
gone further and twined the woodwork with steph- 
anotis and gardenia. The strong hothouse scents 
were in Mrs. Ritchie’s nostrils as she leaned out 
into the night, looking down on the lights of Port 
Victoria. 

‘‘ Captain Stern was here for a fortnight once,” 
she said idly ; I often thought we should like it as 
a station — it is such an idyllic place. How lovely 
these flowers are ! ” 

It is horrible ! ” said Mrs. Lewin, with sudden 
energy. “ It is like a trap — you cannot get out, 
and there is nothing to do. You would hate it ! ” 
She was unconscious that she repeated every one 
else’s Miserere for the first time. 

“ I don’t think I should mind, if my husband 
were here too,” said Blanche frankly. She turned 
her eyes on Mrs. Lewin as if she saw something 
that interested her in the restless beautiful figure. 

The worst of marrying a Navy man is that one 
is not sufficiently considered in his appointments ! 
They will send Ritchie to dubious corners of the 
earth, just when the children have arranged to 
have the measles, and I can’t be in two places at 
once.” 

Mrs. Lewin looked across the stoep to the open 
doorway where Captain Stern presented a good flat 
back to her view as he talked to Major Churton. 
She looked with unconscious wistfulness at his 
shaven fair head and tanned neck, and wondered if 
under the circumstances she would have felt her 
heart torn in two because the seas divided them ? 
And then she remembered her ghost of reluctance 
to leave this place that she said she hated, and Mrs. 
Stern’s next words were full of horror to her. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


173 


'' It is so short-sighted of women to stake their 
little all on a man who is not safe to be no farther 
off than the next room ! I know I shall loath this 
harbour when I see the Greville slipping out of it 
and over the horizon with a peace-maker for East 
Africa — you know that that is what she is here for, 
of course, or is it still an official and consequently 
an open secret ? ” 

We have heard something of it. Does Captain 
Stern expect to be here long ? " 

He will leave the instant your Administrator 
produces the man he has come to fetch. I don't 
really know who I dislike the most just now — the 
Capetown people, who hurried him away on this 
business, or the Port Cecil people, who are making 
the trouble, or the man he is taking to the scene of 
action." 

“ Will he stop there ? " 

<< I am afraid so, for goodness knows how long ! 
Until the affair is settled one way or another, I 
expect. Ritchie hopes he will get a chance to shell 
the town, of course — you can imagine my feelings ! 
I do hope you are sending a nice, timid man from 
Key’land, who prefers diplomacy to shells ! " 

“ I can’t say who it will be, but it is almost 
certain to be Mr. Halton, and he is a thorough 
diplomatist. The whole thing is to be rather 
hushed up, isn’t it ? " 

“ Yes, and as peacefully arranged as possible, I 
believe. That is my great comfort!" Mrs. Stern 
laughed a little whimsically at herself. ‘‘ The two 
things the Government is aiming at are speed and 
secrecy — not that there is much secrecy about it 
amongst us, of course. But they seem bent on 
prompt action for once, and I believe they want to 
get it all settled quietly before the public at home 
recognise that anything more is taking place in 


174 


THE RAT-TRAP 


Africa ! That is why they are forwarding a man 
from Key’land instead of from home or direct from 
the Government out here. It is like going up the 
back stairs to avoid comment ! Well, it is about 
time that Africa dropped into the background, isn’t 
it? We were at Beira when Ritchie got his orders, 
and as the mail was there I came on first. They 
seem to have cabled in all directions from Capetown 
— to us, and to your Administrator, and to the regi- 
ment at Durban.” 

“ That is my husband’s regiment,” remarked 
Chum, as she took the ice from her triumphant 
partner at last. “ I suppose it was quicker to trans- 
port them by sea than across land.” 

Later on it chanced that she danced with Ritchie 
Stern, and caught herself analysing him with fever- 
ish intensity as a man loved by, and in love wfith, 
his own wife. Captain Stern was not a comforting 
study, because there were no excuses in him for 
one’s own failings. He was so simply a gentleman 
as to make more questionable characters seem shady 
by contrast, when without it they had been merely 
complex. It was like plunging one’s hand into cold, 
still water of an infinite depth, to try and plump his 
character, and his habit of speaking from the bottom 
of his lungs rather than the top of his throat intensi- 
fied the impression. It was a matter of training, 
but it seemed an outcome of his personality. He 
struck Leoline Lewin as very kind, which depressed 
her still more — she did not know why — and he 
stood out in her mind as the one man she had 
danced with who had not looked or spoken her a 
compliment. 

“ I like the Sterns very much. Ally,” she said as 
they rode home in the faint coolness of the hour 
before dawn — a mere promise of coolness, that was 
never fulfilled by the day. “ But they give me the 


THE RAT-TRAP 


175 

feeling of having been to church — do Navy people 
ever strike you like that?” 

“ No,” said Ally, who had other impressions of 
ward-rooms, “ very much the other way.” 

“ Oh, I don’t mean that,” said Chum vaguely. 

Only I feel that I have been listening to a sermon 
in the open air — and I have grown so unused to the 
open air that I am afraid of catching a moral cold. 
Ally, how dreadfully confined we grow in garri- 
sons ! Mrs. Stern brings the sea winds to you in 
her eyes.” 

“ You are not growing poetical, are you. Chum ? ” 
said Ally suspiciously. “ I thought Stern a very 
decent chap — can’t imagine him preaching.” 

“ He couldn’t ! ” said Chum, dropping to the old 
level of his thought, and abandoning her own. 
“ But I preached myself the sermon on him as the 
text, and it was, ‘ Woe unto them who can see their 
own wives, for they shall not see any one else’s ! ’ 
What lovely emeralds Mrs. Stern was wearing, by 
the way.” 

‘‘ Yes, I wish I could give you some more stones. 
I’ll try, if we get to Malta.” 

“ I would rather have nice clothes than jewels,” 
said Chum. “ A dowdy woman with diamonds is 
worse dressed than a chic one with paste, all the 
world over. And we can’t run to both — even at 
Malta.” 

“ Did you like Mrs. Stern ? ” 

Yes ! ” said Chum, her eyes darkening to the 
shadows on purple velvet. “ And I hope I shall 
not meet her again.” 

She said the last words savagely, under her breath. 
They were her echo to Mrs. Stern’s, that still hurt 
her, and made her afraid of the eyes that divined 
her secret mind. 

It is so short-sighted of women to stake their 


176 


THE RAT-TRAP 


little all on a man who is not safe to be no farther 
off than the next room ! ” 

She began to feel that she could hardly wait for 
Ally’s appointment to be a certainty; if the Ad- 
ministrator did not inform him of his good fortune 
soon, the strain on their nerves would make them 
both ill-tempered, and that was a vulgarity not to 
be contemplated. Alaric and she had always been 
as courteous to each other as two acquaintances ; it 
was one of her theories of married life, and not yet 
overthrown by experience. The indefiniteness of 
his own escape affected Ally too, so that they were 
both unusually restless, and it was a relief next 
morning when breakfast was over and he could go 
up to Government House. 

“ Don’t be late for luncheon. Ally ! ” Chum said, 
following him on to the stoep, where he paused to 
light his cigarette, a white figure against the green 
of the garden. ‘‘ It will be so awful waiting ! ” 

Perhaps I shan’t have any news,” said Alaric in 
gloomy anticipation. 

“ He must speak of it to-day ! ” 

It would be just like him not to. He will be so 
immersed in the East African business, he will for- 
get all about our little affairs.” 

A momentary doubt dawned in Mrs. Lewin’s 
eyes. She thought of the Gilderoys’ picnic, and 
that large heavy hand on her own. Was she 
indeed a slight incident in his mind, to be brushed 
aside by larger interests ? She had never set eyes 
on Gregory since that moment, and the new sweet 
fear of him that had overwhelmed her was in 
abeyance for the present. Perhaps Ally was right, 
and they were only details in this man’s career, 
a mere speck on his ambition. She tried for 
nothing but honest relief as she turned back to the 
house, 


THE RAT-TRAP 


177 

** Well come and tell me anyway/' she said over 
her shoulder. I mus^ know ! ” 

“ All right,” he replied, more soberly than usual. 
“ I will come back the second he will let me — I 
really will ! It’s no joking matter to either of us.” 

The morning was growing too hot to be out of 
doors as he walked off through the rose-bushes, and 
out of the gate into the grounds of Government 
House. Mrs. Lewin stood in the doorway until the 
white helmet flitted out of sight among the thicken- 
ing trees, and then went in to write letters. The 
writing-table stood close to one of the seven win- 
dows, and she slid up the shutter and fastened the 
pin so that the draught should fan her comfortably, 
before she began her correspondence. Outside a 
wild hot wind was rushing over the hillside, and the 
smell of innumerable flowers dripped in on its 
breath. She wrote slowly, and the sentences would 
not come. All her brain seemed to have followed 
Ally, and to be waiting with him for the Admin- 
istrator to speak. 

At the hour of the Miroro she went into her 
room and lay down under the mosquito curtains 
with a fan in her hand. Usually she fanned herself 
to sleep, but to-day sleep would not come' any 
more than the flow of words. For half-an-hour 
she lay in the hot, still room, counting the silver 
things on the dressing-table, and the photographs 
on the wall, and noticing without her will that the 
black girl who attended to her room, had not hung 
her gowns aright. Natives were so tiresome ; it 
would be almost better to experiment with an 
Arab. 

Would the time never go? Was Ally never 
coming ? 

She rose before lunch could possibly be ready, 
and dressed herself. Then she wandered into the 


1/8 


THE RAT-TRAP 


central room that served for drawing-room and 
lounge, and from which the others all opened out. 
She found Ally’s cigarettes on a table and smoked 
one, turning over the pages of last month’s maga- 
zines, which had just come in by the mail. The 
smudgy illustrations annoyed her, and she flung 
them by and rose restlessly, wandering about the 
hot, sweet rooms, and listening for his step through 
the glare outside. 

Still he did not come. It was past the luncheon 
hour now, and Abdallah had put the finishing 
touches to the table and stood by in grave re- 
proach, his snowy turban already on, and his hands 
folded over his tunic. Abdallah was always severely 
white at luncheon, his costume consisting merely of 
a tunic and turban ; but by dinner time he had added 
a coloured bandana and an embroidered jacket. 
His motionless presence added the last irritation to 
her overwrought mood, and she sent him away un- 
til Captain Lewin should appear. 

The hours dragged away, until the morning had 
slipped into afternoon. Still he did not come. 
With a feeling that she wanted to shriek hysteric- 
ally, Leoline paced steadily up and down the broad 
floors of the bungalow, from one shaded room into 
another, and so back to the corner where the table 
was still spread. She could not eat, and she felt 
that Ally might come at any moment. Something 
was keeping him — not his own pleasure this time ; 
his being transferred from Key Island was a weighty 
matter even to him, and she knew he would return 
to her for advice and support as soon as he could. 
He could see his own interest sufficiently in this to 
resist a passing temptation, but there was none to 
keep him at Government House. The horrible part 
was that it might be nothing but trivial duties that 
detained him after all, and they might have to go 


THE RAT-TRAP 


79 


through this suspense again. The heat seemed to 
get no less as the day wore towards four o’clock, 
and her limbs began to feel lifeless and heavy, as if 
paralysed. When at last the door opened and he 
walked quietly in, she did not rise to meet him or 
spring up for a minute. She sat there watching him 
come straight towards her with a curious specula- 
tive feeling that there was a grave importance in his 
manner that seemed a little ridiculous. She criti- 
cised him as if he were somebody not belonging to 
her. 

Well ! ” she said rising at last, in a slow mechan- 
ical fashion. She looked at him all across the room. 
Yes, certainly he was so grave as to be unlike him- 
self — not depressed, but self-sufficient, almost pom- 
pous. It was so foreign to any mood in which she 
had seen Alaric before that she could only stare at 
him. 

He sat down heavily in a basket chair that 
creaked beneath his weight, and so added to her ab- 
surd impression that he was assuming the air of an 
elderly and important personage. He did not speak 
either at once, and when he did he seemed to be 
weighing his words, as if he said a solemn thing. 

“ I have got it ! ” 

“ The appointment ? ” she said with a long breath, 
trying to shake off her own leadenness and the 
efect of his strange manner. “ Oh, Ally, what 
good news ! I have been so frightened — when you 
did not come, you know, — I thought we might still 
have to wait.” 

“ He spoke of it almost at once. We have talked 
of little else. He was giving me minute instruc- 
tions.” 

A blank feeling of non-comprehension seemed to 
take possession of her. He was still unlike himself, 
or else Gregory’s earnestness had impressed him at 


i8o 


THE RAT-TRAP 


last. Perhaps the force of the stronger man had 
been let loose on the weaker for once, for the sake 
of urging him to a more serious sense of his posi- 
tion. She knew that Gregory had been impatient 
of his indifference in his present post ; perhaps he 
had told him plainly that he must be more consci- 
entious with Sir Geoffrey Vaughan. 

“ Instructions ! " she repeated slowly. “ For 
Malta?” 

« No — not that. I am going to East Africa.” 

She did not cry out, but she fell back a step as if 
some unknown hand had struck her a heavy blow. 
Her eyes were absolutely frightened, and she spoke 
in a low voice of intense terror. 

“ But Ally — you can’t ! You daren’t accept it — 
you can’t do it ! ” 

He fired at the last words as if he half expected 
them. “ Why not ? ” he said irritably. “ Why can’t 
I do it ? I must accept it — you must see that ! I 
have accepted it already. It is arranged.” 

“ You can’t do it ! ” she repeated bluntly. It is 
a heavy responsibility to give to any man — any 
experienced man even. Why isn’t Mr. Halton 
going?” 

He can’t be spared ; there is an awful row going 
on already over the crops.” 

“ The hemp ! ” she said breathlessly, her memory 
going back to those words of Gregory’s — “ They 
have given me carte blanche to do as I think best ” 
— “ They are not burning the crops ? ” 

“ Yes they are. The order went out yesterday. 
There is a compensation of course, but the Chinese 
are furious, and that gives them away, for they must 
have been making their fortunes out of the hashish. 
Halton must stay and see Gregory through it — he 
has no one to send but me.” 

In a streak of terror through her quickened brain 


THE RAT-TRAP 


i8i 


it seemed as if she saw all the disaster of the choice. 
She had never finally acknowledged to herself that 
Ally depended on her for the least success in his 
life, but in the stress of the moment she knew that 
with her to guide and counsel and manage he might 
come through this ordeal — not creditably, but with- 
out failure. Without her it was like sending a child 
to play with a train of gunpowder. Some horrible 
intuition seemed to tell her his incapacity, and ex- 
cuse the belief in herself. Ally in a position that 
needed absolute diplomacy ! Ally managing a del- 
icate enquiry that might lead to a serious issue ! 
She realised only in her dismay that she could not 
go with him to East Africa to save him from failure 
— the loss of her own escape from secret peril did 
not really trouble her mind at the time. The fear 
for him drove her to repeating blankly, “ You can’t 
do it — you mustn’t ! ” 

“ Good God, Chum ! ” he exclaimed in a sudden 
squall of irritation, “ you are ridiculous ! What do 
you mean? You are always worrying me over 
getting on, and having a career, and now that I 
have got an opening, you seem to want me to back 
out ! Don’t you see that I can’t ? Gregory isn’t 
the man to give me a second chance. He is offer- 
ing me a tremendous lift in putting me in such a 
position.” 

Only one sentence in his angry speech found 
room for itself in her mind, for she saw that it was 
true. He could not back out. Evelyn Gregory 
had him fast in his iron grip, and if he chose to send 
him to his ruin he was helpless. She laid her hand 
on the back of a chair and held it cruelly tight as 
if to help herself to think. Why had he done this ? 
Why ? She kept asking herself the question again 
and again, and found no answer. It was so plausi- 
ble on the face of it, this threatened rising over the 


i 82 


THE RAT-TRAP 


hemp crops, and Halton’s presence as an immediate 
necessity, that she felt that it was not true. To the 
outside world the appointment of an emissary sent 
to Port Cecil to “ enquire ” might come within 
Alaric’s sphere, particularly under the stress of cir- 
cumstances in Key Island, but not to her. She had 
a giant fear of Gregory born of her greater knowl- 
edge of him that no one in the Island could share. 
As she stood there looking with unseeing eyes at 
Alaric’s handsome, annoyed face, she saw only the 
shadowy strength of the man whom she had learned 
to know — unscrupulous, tyrannical, successful be- 
cause he allowed nothing to stand in his way. Now 
that she and hers were to be swept aside after his 
method, she began to realise for the first time the 
atmosphere of terror that had seemed to hang round 
him in the minds of those who first spoke of him to 
her. Hitherto she had been but a spectator, and 
he had interested her as a danger of which one only 
reads. To find oneself threatened by the same 
thing in reality makes the difference. 

“ Well !” said Alaric at last, with the half-of- 
fended air of a spoilt child, “ I’m sorry you are not 
better pleased. Chum ! I thought you would be as 
proud as I felt when he told me. Of course I’m 
sorry to leave you behind, old girl, but perhaps we 
shall get something good out of this later.” He 
spoke half apologetically, but the old easy optimism 
was coming back to him. Fortune had always given 
Alaric what he wanted ; he took her gifts for 
granted. 

“ Who will have Malta? Brissy ? ” said his wife 
quietly. 

“ Yes, he’s off next mail — not by this. Of course 
he’ll have to be officially appointed ; but Gregory 
has answered Sir Geofirey’s letter privately, as he 
was asked. I shall have to go to-morrow, or next 


THE RAT-TRAP 183 

day at latest, Chum. Pm sorry ! ” he added simply, 
as a tribute to parting with her. 

But she felt suddenly that he was glad to go — ■ 
glad even of this chance of action. He did not 
mind leaving her behind if only he were free of the 
monotony of Key Island, which also held more un- 
comfortable memories for him than his wife guessed. 
Things were getting complicated round Ally, and 
what had been a pleasant indulgence and flattering 
to his vanity, was growing to be a tie exacted from 
him by a jealous woman. He could not have told, 
if he had honestly tried to do so, how he had drifted 
so far with Diana Churton ; such men as Alaric 
Lewin are as incapable of accounting for the crisis 
of their lives as they are of managing them. He 
trusted to fortune again. Events had generally 
shaped themselves comfortably for him ; and, as in 
the present case, when there was a tight corner the 
natural march of circumstances had forced him out 
of it without any responsibility on his part. 

Circumstances were marching him out now, and 
he was really glad. Captain Stern and the Greville 
would carry him safely away from Key Island to- 
morrow, and Diana’s last note which he had found 
at the club would go unanswered through no fault 
of his. He couldn’t go to Maitso to-night, it was 
out of the question. For the look of the thing he 
must spend what might be his last evening with 
Chum — and of course he wanted to, he added men- 
tally to the back of her head, as she bent over his 
portmanteau. His Malagasan man was busy over 
the shirt-case, and he himself ramming the surplus 
of his property into the kit-bag, but Chum had be- 
come her old self again, and risen to the occasion of 
his packing, once the stupefaction of his news had 
passed off. He was sure it was only the sur- 
prise which had made her unlike herself ; she was 


184 


THE RAT-TRAP 


getting on more with the portmanteau, in spite of 
the heat, than either Longa or himself with their 
share. 

Ally,” said Mrs. Lewin quietly, as she tucked a 
pair of socks into an empty corner, will you go 
over to the Churtons to-night to say good-bye ? ” 

“ N — no ! ” He stammered a little, in the dis- 
comfort of his own knowledge. “ It’s my last even- 
ing most likely. Chum ! — at least we may go to- 
morrow.” 

“ Yes, of course. (Mind the gun-case, Longa!) 
I didn’t mean you to be out all the time. But I 
think you might ride over and just say good-bye — 
you would be back in an hour. They will be so 
awfully hurt if you don’t.” 

Yes,” said Ally uneasily. A sensible and con- 
siderate wife is a very useful article so long as her 
husband wishes to make use of these two qualities ; 
when he does not, he would prefer her to be more 
unreasonable. 

Chum’s suggestion was awkward, because he was 
afraid to refuse to go to Maitso lest she should be 
surprised. . . . Hang it I the whole thing had 

become a nuisance. How glad he was he should 
be out of it to-morrow I Then a brilliant idea 
struck him. He would go down to the club and be 
detained. He could write Di a note, too, from 
there, and ask her to come down and see him off if 
possible. He did not know when they would leave, 
so it was most probable that she would miss him — 
he did not mind that either. Anyhow, there would 
be plenty of fellows at the club to make an excuse 
for getting no further. He might see Churton too. 
He liked Churton — when he didn’t feel a grovelling 
cad. 

“ All right, perhaps I’d better. I can go after 
dinner, but I shan’t be long,” he said. Mrs. Lewin 


THE RAT-TRAP 185 

did not answer or look at him. She was very busy 
over the portmanteau. 

It was rather a silent dinner, but he noticed with 
real pain and affection how soft and fair Leoline 
looked in her long white dinner-gown, and wondered 
when they would have one of their merry tete-a-tete 
meals again. He was devoted to his wife — in 
theory at any rate. Perhaps Chum could not have 
pleaded much more, save that she tried to practise 
what she preached. If men were not such complex 
animals the Day of Judgment would be a simpler 
ceremony, but as things are they will have many 
pleas to enter of former good conduct and extenu- 
ating circumstances. Ally rode away with his heart 
full of his wife, because she had entered there 
through his eyes, and with no thought of infidelity 
to her. At the club he sat down and wrote a note, 
which w'as the more emphatic because he did not 
mean it, and a little more reckless in expression 
than usual because he was going away in safety. 

He could not find his own sais, who should have 
followed him into town to look after his pony, and 
risked sending a loafer whom he knew by sight, to 
Maitso. The man grinned and put the letter in his 
breast before he hitched up his trousers to show his 
zeal, the action meaning that Captain Lewin was to 
understand he would run all the way. 

Ally laughed good-naturedly. “ Mind it's im- 
portant. Give it to Mrs. Churton herself,” he said. 

I’ll pay you when you come back without it.” 

Yes, Baas ! I give it dere ! ” said the nigger, 
and he started off at a jog-trot along the twinkling 
street towards the dusk of Maitso Hill. 

Ally turned back into the club, still laughing. 


CHAPTER XII 


“ * Lachye noogh ? ’ as Botha said to his slave .” — Boer Proverb. 

“ It is a little unfortunate all round,” said the 
Commissioner. “ Or perhaps inconvenient is the 
better word.” 

As far as it affects you, you are better off than if 
you were going to Port Cecil. This may not be 
anything — we may cool down and tide over, and 
you will catch this mail. She does not leave until 
Thursday.” 

The Administrator was sitting at his own writing- 
table, with his back to Halton, who had also been 
at work, as the scattered papers testified. The 
room was one of many in Government House that 
had no especial use, and had been given up to the 
work of the enquiry. The third chair and littered 
writing-table was at the moment unoccupied, and 
belonged to Captain Lewin. Over Halton’s head 
ranged a portly array of shelves on which the old 
papers and accounts of the British African Island 
Co., Ltd., were dustily stored, and attracted the 
mosquitoes, as well as a water-tank, for though he 
cannot breed in them the mosquito loves a book- 
shelf that is not often disturbed, and creeps along 
the volumes’ edges and hides behind their bulk. 

“ Hardly ! ” said the Commissioner, with a slight 
shrug. “ She has nearly finished discharging her 
cargo already, and will not take two days to coal.” 
He reached up over his head, and took down one 
of the dusty volumes a little curiously, as if he had 
not observed it before. There were some books of 

i86 


THE RAT-TRAP 


187 


reference among the old ledgers, and this, to judge 
from its appearance, was one, rather than an ac- 
count book. 

“ You will get the next boat, then,” said Gregory, 
ofif-handedly. His back being towards his coad- 
jutator as he thus dismissed the subject of his con- 
venience, he did not see Halton’s eyes as he slowly 
raised them from the old book and looked at him. 
It seemed he had found the passage he wanted, for 
he kept his finger on a yellowed leaf while he 
spoke. 

I see of course the expediency of remaining 
here at the moment, as you have decided on the 
necessity of such a stringent measure as burning 
the hemp-crop.” His voice was formal, and so 
perfectly controlled that it contained neither anger 
nor disapprobation nor argument. The Adminis- 
trator’s busy pen stopped. He lifted his head 
slightly as though listening, and came within the 
radius of the shaded electric light. But the shorn 
reddish hair betrayed nothing unless it were the fact 
that he was growing very grey towards the temples. 
His overhanging brow and secretive mouth were 
not visible to the Commissioner, whose level voice 
ran on quietly. 

“ Before closing this matter, however, I should 
like for principle’s sake to enter a protest, though it 
is merely a matter of form. I do not consider 
Captain Lewin a fit man to send to East Africa on 
this business. I believe him to be absolutely in- 
capable of the anxious work before him, and if he 
does not make a hash of the whole business it will 
be a miracle. The power of course lies in your 
hands ; the decision is with you. I am not here to 
advise you in this, but, unofficially, I should be do- 
ing an unfriendly thing if I did not warn you of 
my opinion as to his incompetence.” 


i88 


THE RAT-TRAP 


For a minute there was silence, while the last 
words hung in the air like a menace. They meant 
more than the private counsel of one man to an- 
other — they might also be translated as warning 
Gregory that his ally’s opinion of Lewin’s incapacity 
would find voice in high places. It was perhaps a 
gauge thrown down, and if so it was taken up very 
quietly in the next few words, that the Administrator 
uttered as naturally as if it were the inevitable re- 
ply to Halton’s argument. 

“ I am writing to Melton Hanney to do his best 
to give Captain Lewin every assistance in his power. 
He knows Port Cecil well. Had the Government 
been advised by me they would have put the matter 
in his hands, instead of which they have insisted on 
my sending some one from here. There is only 
my A.D.C. to send.” 

“ I see.” Halton’s hand was still on the noted 
passage. His eyes followed the slight shrug of 
Gregory’s mighty shoulders, while he felt with sav- 
age impotence that one might turn a tiger from its 
prey, sooner than this man from his purpose. 
Halton would not have dared to do the thing that 
he saw as plainly as its perpetrator ; and because he 
knew he dared not, he hated the man who could 
and would with a hate born of self-knowledge. 

“ Melton Hanney is an old friend of yours, is he ? 
You know him as a good man ? ” he said. 

“ I have known him for about sixteen years,” said 
Gregory grimly. “ And watched successive Gov- 
ernments pass him over for good work done.” 
This was the man of whom Leoline had spoken to 
Blanche Stern. 

“ I have no doubt he is the right person to con- 
sult on such a situation. Knowledge on the spot is 
beyond value,” said Halton, rising from his chair, 
and laying the book still open on his table. “ I am 


THE RAT-TRAP 


189 


going down to see White, Gregory. As yet I am 
not a marked man ; but if you take my advice you 
will not ride alone through Port Victoria at present. 
The niggers are fit to dance the Cannab Dance for 
you ! ” 

“ The curs — I wish they had spirit enough ! No, 
there might be the makings of a fight at China 
Town, but our mixed breeds will hardly show their 
teeth here. If you are going to see White, Halton, 
I wish you would ask him to come up early to- 
morrow, unless he would prefer to meet me at the 
office at eleven. I have business to discuss with 
him.” 

“ I shall recommend his coming here,” said 
Halton, with a slightly strained smile. “ In spite 
of your contempt for them I should not be sur- 
prised to find a deputation of these ^ mixed breeds ’ 
waiting on you — with razors. If I were in your 
position, I tell you frankly I should ask the O.C.T. 
for a picket.” 

There’s a shambok on the wall there,” said 
Gregory with quiet significance. It would answer 
the same purpose — and is quite handy.” 

He did not turn his head as Halton’s retreating 
steps died away from the room, but he noticed with 
more interest the sound of a little silver clock strik- 
ing eight. He often worked up to ten o’clock at 
night, and had come back to write his letters direct 
from the dinner-table. The one to Melton Hanney 
was too long for an official document, and more 
private than he had indicated to Halton. He in- 
tended giving it to Alaric Lewin to deliver direct, 
and had cabled in cypher to Hanney to inform him 
of his advent. As he directed' and sealed the 
envelope it struck him that the room was hot, and 
he rose and opened the long window-doors on to 
the stoep, passing Halton’s table as he did so. The 


190 


THE RAT-TRAP 


book lay open where the Commissioner had left it, 
and with a passing wonder as to what he had been 
reading, Gregory’s eyes fell upon it and discovered 
that it was an old Bible, probably kept there for 
purposes of oath-making. 

The Administrator took the book up deliberately 
in his strong hands, and looked to see what had 
engrossed Alfred Halton so deeply. He remem- 
bered how the flicker of the thin pages carefully 
turned, behind him, had worried his ear while he 
tried to concentrate all his thought and care upon 
the letter to Hanney, for it had been a dangerous 
letter to write, and every word had been weighed. 
Even then he had found it necessary to seal it, and 
would have to apologise to Lewin when asking him 
to deliver it. Halton had been looking for some- 
thing, or he would not have turned those pages with 
such intent. Evelyn Gregory held up the faded 
print to the light. 

It was the story of Uriah. 

And it came to pass in the morning that David 
wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of 
Uriah. 

And he wrote in the letter, saying. Set ye Uriah 
in the forefront of the battle, and retire ye from him, 
that he may be smitten, and die. 

And it came to pass, when Joab observed the 
city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place whence he 
knew that valiant men were. 

“And the men of the city went out, and fought 
with Joab; and there fell some of the people of 
the servants of David ; and Uriah the Hittite died 
also.” 

Certain passages in his own letter rose in 
Gregory's mind as distinctly and slowly as the note 
of the little silver clock when it had chimed out the 
hour. “ I am forced to send a fool, because Gov- 


THE RAT-TRAP 


191 

ernment have cabled . . . but I can only rely 
on you to do your best to save his mistakes, and 
get us out of the mess if he hashes it. . . . Do 

you remember Barotse, and the night you said you 
owed me more than a life ? Well, if you want to 
pay, back me up now. . . . Lewin is one of 

those favoured animals with Friends. I am always 
being urged to make a show for him. Don’t take 
his place, but follow him up and cover his tracks. 
If the fool has anything in him it must show up 
now. Give him a free hand — it is the consequences 
I want you to manage. I know I am asking a hard 
thing of you, all the work and no pay; but then 
I could trust no one else, if that’s Salama to 
you. . . . Above all^ keep Lewin in the fro7it of 

things!' 

He put down the Bible with a steady hand, and 
his iron jaws closed slowly, hardening his face into 
its ugliest lines. Yet for a moment he stood by 
the table thinking, and facing his own letter un- 
flinchingly, as he saw it in his mind, side by side 
with one written dusty centuries ago by another 
strong man to his captain. 

“ Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the battle ” 

“ Above all, keep Lewin in the front of things.” 

He was roused by the door being opened, be- 
cause no attention had rewarded the servant’s 
patient tapping, but he looked at his master 
apologetically. 

“ A lady wishes to see you, sir ! ” he breathed 
rather than spoke, as if his own extraordinary 
message confused him. 

“ A lady ! ” Gregory glanced involuntarily at the 
little silver clock ; it pointed to half-past eight. 

“ It is Mrs. Lewin, sir, she said she must see you 
for a minute.” 

“ Ask her to come in here,” said Gregory, turn- 


192 


THE RAT-TRAP 


ing his back suddenly upon the man. He looked 
at the open window half as if he would have closed 
it, and at the shaded light half as if he would have 
extinguished it, for his face was out of control. 
Even when he turned round to meet his visitor, he 
offered her his hand in silence, and she was vaguely 
surprised that he seemed to have suddenly gone 
bloodless. The big veins swelled on his temples 
though, and his eyes looked sunken and cavernous. 
She heard the door shut slowly, and fancied that 
the servant who had admitted her shared her 
curiosity and would fain have lingered. All per- 
sonal feeling and sense of embarrassment had been 
swept from her mind by the events which had over- 
whelmed her in the last few hours, and she did not 
remember that she had not really met the man 
standing before her since his hand had rested on 
hers at the picnic. She was not an impulsive 
woman, and yet it had been impulse that had made 
her send Ally to Maitso, impulse that had made her 
wait feverishly for the moment of his departure, 
that had hurried her feet along the familiar garden 
and through the grounds of Government House the 
instant his pony’s hoofs died away down the hill. 
She was devoured by a desire to know why Gregory 
had done her this ill turn, and was sending her hus- 
band to certain failure, for he knew Alaric’s in- 
capacity as well as she. It was impulse now that 
drove her forward a step towards him, and made her 
voice low and hurried as she spoke straight to him 
without any more formal greeting. 

“ Why have you done this ? Are you mad ? 
What has made you send him to Port Cecil instead 
of to Sir Geoffrey ? ” 

He was looking at her with his long, hard stare, 
taking in every line of her white figure in its 
feminine softness and beauty. Her hair was waved 


THE RAT-TRAP 


193 


back from her forehead more than usual, as if she 
had pushed it there in her impatient thought, and 
beneath her delicate drawn brows her velvet eyes 
were alight as if with pain. He felt stupid with 
passion, and remembered with a curious thrill the 
occasion on which he had seen her in her night- 
dress, her hair thrown back from her forehead with 
much the same effect, and the same strained look 
in her eyes — it seemed that her husband was always 
the cause of her looking so. 

She had taken a step forward. He took one 
also, and they stood close together, with nothing 
to hinder their direct gaze into each other’s faces. 
His whispering voice was horribly audible, and yet 
suppressed as he answered her. 

“ Mrs. Lewin, you have asked me to do my best 
for your husband, and give him a chance if Govern- 
ment referred to me to recommend him. I am 
giving him a chance. What reason have you to 
complain ? ” 

She threw out her hands with a little movement 
of desperation, almost as if she would have seized 
his arm and shaken him. Oh, don’t lie, now ! ” 
she exclaimed. “ Tell me the truth — the truth ! 
You know he may ruin himself if he goes without 
me. Why did you not send us to this other ap- 
pointment that was put in your hands ? If you had 
mentioned his name, instead of Captain Nugent’s, to 
Sir Geoffrey Vaughan, we should have been moved 
from here together. Why did you not do it ? ” 

He did not ask her how she had known of his 
private letter from the old general. He stood and 
looked at her still, and moistened his lips as if he 
could hardly speak. She saw his tongue touch 
them like a wicked snake before the words would 
come. He bent a little more towards her, and his 
lidless eyes probed hers mercilessly. 


194 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“ Because I could not part from you ! ” he said 
distinctly, and yet he seemed to speak without a 
real note in his voice. 

She fell back in exactly the same mechanical 
way that she had gone forward, and her eyes 
blinked before his as if before too strong a light. 
Very slowly she lifted her pretty hands and laid 
them over her breast as if with an unconscious 
effort to quiet the throbbing of the pulses there. 
He had not moved ; but her voice was almost 
as toneless as his, when she spoke, from utter 
terror. 

“ Do you realise what you are doing ? That it is 
not only his own career that Ally may risk, but 
— but the whole situation in East Africa. If he 
bungles it you will be held responsible ! ” 

He bent his head so slightly that it seemed he 
hardly moved. 

“ Yes, I know it.” 

And you ? ” 

Their eyes still met. She drew a sharp breath as 
if she stood suddenly in too strong an air. It 
seemed to her as if the personality of the man 
buffeted her, and she could not stand against it. 
She was afraid of any one who could gamble with 
Government like this, and stake empires for his 
own hazard. It was sweeping her off her feet, and 
leaving her helpless in a vortex of feeling she was 
not able to control. Her own nature she thought 
she could fight and conquer, but she saw with sud- 
den panic that the one before her was beyond her, 
yes or no — she might influence, but she could not 
dominate it as she had her husband’s. If he had 
chosen to take her savagely in his arms, she could 
have protested, but she could not have averted the 
embrace by the power of her will. Hitherto Leo- 
line Lewin had drawn an invisible line of demarca- 


THE RAT-TRAP 


195 


tion between hei*self and mankind, and had known 
that none would dare to overstep it. But this man 
would not be conscious of the line. Nothing but 
his own restraint could save her from the peril of 
touch at least. 

The windows still stood wide open to the wind- 
less night. She was waiting for she knew not what, 
when Gregory suddenly turned his head, listened, 
and faced round from her towards the apertures. 
The stars struggled against the electric light to 
make the stoep a grey vagueness, and it stretched, 
empty and silent, beyond the house itself. For a 
minute there was nothing but the whirring of the 
crickets, and the shrill wearisome cry of a tree frog 
that pierced the hearing. Then through all the 
natural clamour of tropical darkness came the rustle 
of human presence, the tread of feet, and the sound 
of many voices rising from the gardens. Something 
white rushed on to the stoep, and at the same mo- 
ment Gregory had made a stride for the light and 
turned it off. His own figure and Mrs. Lewin’s 
must have been sharply visible a second before from 
the garden outside, as they stood in the strong light 
of the room, objects for missiles or bullets ; but as 
he walked forward to the intruder he alone was in 
view. 

“ What is it, Ahmed ? ” he said. 

The man was one of his own servants, an Arab, 
and with more than an Arab’s craven fear of dan- 
ger in his quivering body at the present moment. He 
stood shaking and sweating, his words broken with 
fright as he tried to speak. 

“ They have passed the gate ! They are coming 
up here ! Quick, Effendi ! — get to the stables and 
ride for the barracks ! The soldiers will fight 
for us ! ” 

Mrs. Lewin, standing in the dusk of the room 


196 


THE RAT-TRAP 


behind him, saw Gregory take the man by his linen 
tunic, swing him over like an inconsiderable bundle, 
and roll him along the stoep out of his way. Then 
he stepped quickly to the wall and took something 
in his hand. She caught the long quiver of a 
shambok as he spoke to her briefly over his 
shoulder. 

“ There is going to be a noise, I expect, but it 
won’t be much. It is only a lot of niggers come 
up to call me out and protest about the crops. Can 
you load a revolver? ” 

Yes ! ” 

“ Well, do so, and shoot as many blacks as you 
like. The more the better. There is a revolver in 
the second drawer of that table, and cartridges.” 

“ Won’t you have it?” 

“ No ; this will do for me. I should like to flay 
half-a-dozen, and teach them how the Kaffirs die 
under this thing ! ” The shambok quivered omi- 
nously, and the roused blood in his veins was evi- 
dently finding an outlet in the hope of savage 
assault. She shuddered a little as his large gaunt 
figure vanished through the window on to the 
stoep. 

The “ deputation ” that Halton had foretold was a 
motley crowd, and by sheer force of numbers rather 
than belligerence, had pushed the sentry aside and 
swarmed up to the house in an unorganised attack. 
Amongst the half-drunken niggers who were danc- 
ing amicably amongst themselves instead of forming 
up with the semblance of an opposing force, the 
little blue figures of the Chinese were visible, and 
all the anger of the assembly seemed to be concen- 
trated in them. As Gregory stalked onto the stoep 
the clamour rose, the half-hysterical ribaldry of the 
blacks clearing to threats and words, and the China- 
men jabbering like monkeys. Through it all the 


THE RAT-TRAP 


197 

cry of the Malagasy « Ra ! ” (blood) cut the tumult 
like a clear bass note. 

The Administrator leaned over the rail, gripping 
it with his lean hands, and looking down at the 
upturned faces with his hard stare. The insolence 
of his attitude seemed to half rouse, half tame the 
crowd. They wavered, but the sing-song snarl 
which Mrs. Lewin had heard in the hour of the 
Miroro, went on like an accompaniment to the 
crickets. Words were indistinguishable, but some 
one on the outskirts of the throng flung a cocoanut 
which hit the zinc roofing of the stoep, and, as if it 
were a signal, half-a-dozen blue figures swarmed 
over the railing and made a rush for Gregory. 
Leoline had moved by instinct nearer the window, 
with the loaded revolver in her hand. She remem- 
bered that Halton had said that Gregory loved a 
row, for she heard him laugh shortly, as if in enjoy- 
ment of his own excitement, while he stepped back 
and awaited them. No other missile was flung as 
she expected it would be, but she wondered if the 
crowd were armed with razors as the rioters had 
been before. Then she saw a curious sight, for the 
first of the Chinamen to approach too near was 
caught by the swing of the supple shambok and 
fell on his back with the breath knocked out of 
him, and Gregory advanced on the others, literally 
sweeping the stoep clear again by the force of his 
swinging blows. The hide whickered viciously as 
it cut the still air, and once a shriek answered its 
awful Whir-r-r-r-r-h ! ” telling how the blow had 
caught its victim. The absolute and savage con- 
tempt with which he whipped them off the stoep, 
like curs, gave the woman watching him a revela- 
tion of the abhorrence in which the Englishman 
really holds the alien, and especially after many 
years spent amongst coloured races. She had met 


198 


THE RAT-TRAP 


with something of it in her husband, and learned 
more from Captain Gilderoy’s frank brutality in 
speaking of them ; but now she saw and realised. 
Gregory kicked the last man into the garden and 
came back to her laughing horribly. The curious 
part to her was that they did not resist, and he did 
not even wait to see the humming crowd melt 
away into the darkness as it was fast doing. 

“ If there were any organisation among them 
they might be worth killing,” he said, taking the 
revolver from her. “ As it is I would have made 
an example of one of those Chinamen — shamboked 
him so that he would brew no hashish ! — if you had 
not been there. But it’s not a pretty sight.” 

“ Are they gone ? ” she asked with stiff lips. 
The march of events seemed to have stunned her. 
She had a sick feeling that she could bear no more, 
and that she had lived through crisis after crisis in 
a few hours, which would in an ordinary way be 
spread over as many years. 

“ They will be in a few minutes, but if you will 
excuse me I will just go and give orders to see 
that the grounds are quite clear before you walk 
back.” 

She was thankful that the sudden incursion of 
natives seemed to have deferred any further scene 
between them. He was alert and full of fire, but it 
was not directly for her, though he took elaborate 
care for her * escort back to the bungalow, and 
accompanied her as far as the garden gate himself. 

“ Tell your own servants to keep a look-out,” he 
said. But I expect Captain Lewin will hear that 
there was a threatened row and come up in hot 
haste to look after you.” He dismissed the Arabs 
who had accompanied them, with a nod, and held 
out his hand to her. “ Good-night! ” he said in a 
gentler tone, that made her nerves shoot with fear- 


THE RAT-TRAP 


199 

ful anticipation. “ You were very good and brave. 
I hope you were not much frightened.” 

“ I do not think I realised it all at the moment — 
you were so cool over it.” 

“ Because there really was no immediate danger. 
That was not an organised attack — it was a fore- 
taste of what might happen. That is why I am 
obliged to detain the Commissioner — to confirm 
my action should a real riot break out.” He 
looked at her straight, and she saw that he feared 
no real danger, and that this was the assertion he 
meant to fling in the face of the world as his ex- 
cuse for keeping Halton and sending her husband 
away — she saw it, but it fell on stunned senses. No 
one who had seen him to-night would believe that 
he could fear an attack, however organised, or see 
any necessity to detain the Commissioner. But 
she had borne all she could bear at present. She 
wished him good-night, and turned towards the 
lights of her own house, like one walking in her 
sleep. 

“ Good-night ! ” he said again, and looked round 
him, from the dusky garden to the gate which her 
hand had closed between them, and along the dark 
pathway to Government House. ** When there 
was a threatened riot before, and I roused you up, 
I came by the road, for I was riding. But this is 
the best path on foot. I have never been this way 
— before.” 


CHAPTER XIII 


« He that would have a good revenge, let him leave it to God.” 
^English Proverb. 

Captain Lewin’s bearer was what Mr. Halton 
would have described as an “ average idiot ” among 
niggers, but he was anxious to earn his fee, and his 
anxiety increased his intelligence to a disastrous 
extent. As soon as he got out of his employer’s 
range of vision, of course his shambling trot de- 
generated into a saunter, and he loafed up Maitso 
Hill, calling out salutations to the natives whom he 
met coming down from work, for they employed 
black labour at the garrison. Still he did not abso- 
lutely stop, even to talk to the rickety trains of mule 
carts, whose drivers began a high-pitched conversa- 
tion with him as soon as they came within sight. 
No Key Island nigger waits to begin his gossip un- 
til he is close to his friend ; most of his conversation 
is screamed in patois from one end of a street to an- 
other, as his acquaintance comes round a corner, 
and the mixture of bastard Arabic, and African - 
Dutch, and what he thinks is English, bound to- 
gether by long, lovely Malagasy words, is, to say 
the least of it, peculiar. By dint of keeping on, 
however, even at a saunter, the bearer reached the 
Churtons’ bungalow in some half-hour’s time after he 
started from the club, and came soundlessly through 
the screen of logwood, his bare feet lost in the dust, 
and guided by the lights that twinkled from the 
stoep. 

Before he reached the house itself he saw one of 


200 


THE RAT-TRAP 


201 


its inmates approaching leisurely, and paused him- 
self, because it would have been waste of energy to 
take the few extra steps and call up the mistress, 
when here was the master of the house already at 
hand. Major Churton was smoking, the red end of 
his cigar looking like a strayed fire-fly among the 
light logwood leaves as he advanced, his big person 
very big indeed in its white linen and looming 
through the dusk like a substantial ghost. He had 
come out in the hope of getting more air than was 
possible on the stoep, and being in canvas shoes his 
advance was almost as soundless as the nigger’s. 
Both men stared at each other through the darkness 
as if to make sure of the other’s personality, — Major 
Churton because he did not expect to see a ragged 
loafer from the town about his house after dusk, and 
Captain Lewin’s bearer because he saw the end of 
his responsibility before him if this were really the 
Bimbashi (Major). 

Well, what do you want?” said Churton 
shortly. 

A letter. Baas ! ” The man drew it out of the 
rags that covered his breast, and shifted from one 
foot to the other in the dust, with an apologetic 
smile on his vacant face. He held the letter to 
Churton and nodded insistently. 

For me ? ” said the Major as he took it. It was 
too dark to see the inscription, but he held the 
cigar between his large white teeth and broke the 
seal, moving into the faint light from the stoep to 
decipher it. 

Yaas, Baas. Captain Lewin sent it — I give it 
to you yourself ! ” 

The man had jumbled his orders, and in all good 
faith believed that the letter was to go to the own- 
ers of the bungalow direct — whether the Bimbashi 
or the Missus had it, did not enter his head as of 


202 


THE RAT-TRAP 


importance, for he thought the point was that it 
should not pass through the hands of the servants. 
Having delivered his message he did not linger in 
the hope of a reward at this end of his journey, for 
Major Churton’s crisp manner was not encourag- 
ing; he hurried off to catch his employer still at 
the club and claim his fee, and with a brief 
“ Efenin’, Baas ! ” his noiseless figure shambled into 
the darkness again, and departed down the hill. 

But Major Churton did not answer the salutation. 
He was standing close against the railing of the 
stoep, but necessarily below it, as the bungalow 
was lifted a foot or so above the ground on account 
of snakes. The man’s shoulder reached the top of 
the rail, and he held the letter carefully so that the 
light beyond fell across it. It touched his own face, 
too, and showed two deep furrows between his 
brows, and the grey in his thick dark hair — such a 
slight sprinkling from the hand of time that it 
hardly showed unless in such a full light. Some- 
where in that lighted house his wife was busy over 
feminine affairs of her own; she was not in this 
front room, however, otherwise by lifting his eyes 
he could have seen her. He was vaguely glad of 
that even in the first shock of his surprise, for he 
was always afraid of his own temper. 

Ally had not begun that letter even in an in- 
formal manner, or the “ Dear Di ” would have pre- 
vented Major Churton reading further. It was un- 
guarded in its phrasing, and incriminating to a de- 
gree in which he had never written before, because 
he knew he was going away. To a jealous nature 
there was no question as to the meaning of its 
references ; but just because Bute Churton knew his 
own power of anger he was terribly just, and kept 
an iron control over his judgment. He would not 
be sure — not quite yet. He would wait and see if 


THE RAT-TRAP 


203 


the woman made this ugly suspicion a certainty by 
any incautious speech on her part. He thought 
for a moment of going down to the club now, 
whence this had come, and dealing direct with 
Lewin; but he was not sure — the letter he was 
mechanically twisting and crushing in his strong 
fingers was no proof of anything but a dangerous 
intimacy — no literal proof at least — and there was 
plenty of time to-morrow. 

He looked down at the letter again, and tried to 
piece the matter out. For years Di and he had 
gone their own ways, and he had made no fuss over 
the succession of men who had been her dubious 
friends,” because through some infatuated belief 
in a man’s own wife being different from other 
women, he had fancied that she was always on the 
safe side — she had certainly always kept herself be- 
yond the range of scandal, if not gossip. Had the 
theory of the thing even drifted through his mind, 
as an indiscretion of the past, he might have shut 
his eyes to it. It was as an actual experience of 
the present that made it a hideous and impossible 
posiiion. A general tenet with regard to loose 
morals is a very different thing to the example which 
affects one personally. The most broad-minded 
people in profession are generally the least charita- 
ble in practice. 

He stood out there in the darkness until he had 
regained his grip on himself, and thought that he 
was cool. He could not re-read Ally’s letter, so he 
put it in his pocket for further consideration, before 
deciding to give it to Diana. Perhaps also he hoped 
that Lewin’s departure meant nothing to her such 
as the letter suggested ; if she did not read Ally's 
urgent request to her to ride down and say good- 
bye to him, it might not occur to her. He would 
give her that chance. 


,204 


THE RAT-TRAP 


They had already dined, and the table was cleared 
and reloaded with the Tantalus and soda-water, 
when he entered the dining-room. Diana came in 
as he was helping himself to whiskey, — sparingly, 
this time, — and flung her writing-case on to a distant 
table with a movement suggestive of weary impa- 
tience. 

“ It is hot ! ” she remarked. I’ll have some 
claret and soda, — leave me some ice, Bute.” She 
mixed it for herself, and spoke as she did so. 
“ Have you heard when the Greville is going ? ” 

“ No!” 

“ Didn’t you see Captain Stern this morning at 
the club ? ” 

“ Yes. He didn’t say.” 

‘‘ Bother I ” said Diana frankly. I must tele- 
phone through the first thing.” 

Where ? ” 

“ To the Lewins, of course. They will know.” 

Why ? ” 

The monosyllables did not warn her, for his voice 
was perfectly under control. And his back was 
towards her as he helped himself to another cigar 
from the box on the sideboard. 

I’m going down to see old Ally Sloper off if he 
goes in the middle of the night 1 ” said Diana shortly. 
The openness of the speech sounded brazen to him 
to-night, for he forgot that yesterday it would have 
passed him by. In her certainty of being secure 
from his suspicion she took no trouble to disguise 
her motives, and she was in some sort desperate also. 
The feeling that had been half-hearted on Ally’s 
side had grown to painful intensity on Diana’s until 
her fondness for him made her as weak as he. 

“ He will probably start early, and only his wife 
will be there. I shouldn’t ipake myself an unwel- 
come third if I were you.” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


205 


Half the place will be there ! ” said Diana, with 
an unnatural laugh. You know we always turn 
up to see the last of any one, it’s one of the few lit- 
tle distractions left us. Of course I shall go — Chum 
won’t mind.” 

“ I never argue,” said Churton, the cigar between 
his teeth making the words sound ominously as if 
he had set them. “ All I have to say is that if I 
were you — I shouldn’t go.” 

For a minute she looked up sharply, and her 
heart throbbed with fear of him. He was standing 
at his full height, and though she was not a small 
woman, he made her feel suddenly that his mascu- 
line strength might be brutal — in any case that she 
was but a child to him, physically. Then with the 
old sore sense of injustice that has rankled in 
woman from all generations, she set his sins beside 
her own, and demanded dumbly if he could throw 
the first stone, even though he knew ! He did not 
guess, of course — she would not harbour that idea ; 
but even if he did he had no right to accuse her. 
She shut her lips in a hard line, and said no more. 

Churton looked at her also for a moment. He 
saw the hard, sun-scorched face and the embittered 
lips, and perhaps he thought of the red-haired girl 
he married. Diana was never untidy — her head was 
as sleek and well-groomed now as a racer’s coat, and 
below the collar line her neck was milk-white where 
her evening dress betrayed its original beauty. She 
had the transparency peculiar to red-haired women, 
and there was neither flaw nor fleck on her 
shoulders. 

They went up to bed in silence, and the peace 
between them remained unbroken. She could hear 
him moving about in his dressing-room for a while, 
but she was undressed and asleep before he lay down 
by her side, and she was unaware that he lay hour 


2o6 


THE RAT-TRAP 


after hour, awake and thinking, piecing one thing 
in with another, proving his own dishonour, and un- 
consciously 

“ Nursing his wrath to keep it warm.” 

He thought himself cool and collected, while the 
smouldering fury in him burned steadily to white 
heat. He had always been afraid of his own tem- 
per — it was cheating him now. 

Diana woke early, for she had fallen asleep wish- 
ing to do so, and thinking that her husband was 
still oblivious of her she slipped out of bed and be- 
gan to do her hair rapidly. She glanced at him 
once, and saw that he was lying on his back as he 
often did, the covering sheet thrown off him, and one 
perfectly-moulded knee drawn up, which was also a 
habit of his. He would sleep so, and she thought 
his eyes were closed now without more than a cur- 
sory glance. He was, in fact, not much in her 
thoughts, though again it flitted across her mind 
that his large supine limbs suggested terrible strength. 
He was a splendidly-built man — as well built as 
Alaric Lewin, though his added years had thickened 
him somewhat — and even the raised knee was 
rounded with a massive beauty that would have 
pleased a sculptor. 

By and by she found that the linen gown she 
wanted hung in a closet outside her room, on the 
other side of the passage. She slipped out almost 
noiselessly to get it, and as she returned she heard 
a clock somewhere in the house strike four. She 
was in plenty of time, but the last report of the 
Greville's departure which had reached her had been 
stated at five, and the grooms must saddle up for 
her at once. She did not wait to telephone to the 
Lewins after all, for fear of hindering herself rather 
than otherwise. The thought occupied her mind, 


THE RAT-TRAP 


207 

so that when she re-entered the room she did not 
notice that her husband had gone. 

There was no time for a bath now, she could have 
that later when she had ridden up the hill again, 
and was dusty and hot. Ally would be gone then 
— gone at least for a month, for no one expected 
the trouble in East Africa to last longer. A month 
was long enough — a month without Ally ! She did 
not realise that she had grown a foolish woman, 
whose empty heart could not feed for ever on pass- 
ing attractions, and so craved greedily to really fill 
itself, though with an unsatisfying love. Alaric 
Lewin had been like a renewal of youth and its pos- 
sibilities ; he was young and vital, and his very lack 
of purpose made him seem like a boy far into his 
manhood. She was clinging to the thought of him, 
when she saw her husband enter quietly from the 
dressing-room. 

He was in his shirt, but the sleeves were rolled up 
to the elbow over his muscled arms. He seemed to 
have been washing, for he held a towel loosely in 
one hand. She noticed vaguely that it was wet, or 
had been dipped in water and wrung out. It 
looked almost like a rope-end, twisted in that 
way. 

Conscious that her own shoulders were bare, she 
resented the unusual intrusion of his entrance, and 
turned on him curtly. 

“ I have not finished dressing,” she said. You 
can’t have this room yet. What do you want? ” 

“ Why are you up so early ? ” he returned, as 
curtly as she had spoken. 

“ I am going down to see the Greville off! ” 

“ You will go ? ” 

Her eyes met his, the hard brown of them red- 
dish with anger. “ Yes, I will ! ” she said boldly. 

He laid a tumbled letter before her, spreading it 


208 


THE RAT-TRAP 


out that she might see the familiar writing, and 
speaking carefully, as though he picked his words. 

“ Captain Lewin’s bearer gave me this in the dark 
last night, telling me it was for me — I could not see 
the address, and he had evidently made a mistake, 
for he insisted on my reading it. You can see for 
yourself ” 

He broke off, waiting with a terrible patience 
while she glanced over the page. There was no 
need to tell her more openly what she was to see, 
but her face hardly altered save that it was frankly 
insolent as she looked at him. 

“ I won’t say anything about your reading my 
letters,” she said, because you say it was by mis- 
take. The only thing I will say is that you have 
no right to question me. I have never read any of 
your letters, by mistake or otherwise, but ” 

She flung the taunt at him, and saw his face 
darken. Well, if there was to be a row she did not 
mind much. Her rage at being found out, and the 
pain of losing Ally at the same time, made her like 
some fierce animal that turns to bay and longs to 
fight. It would not be an open scandal — she knew 
that instinctively. Let him do his worst ! 

He interrupted before she could accuse him fur- 
ther. 

That is beside the point. You will not go down 
to see the Greville off.” 

I will ! ” 

He caught her by the arm, his fingers closing like 
iron on the white flesh, and with his other hand he 
brought the wet towel down heavily across her bare 
shoulders. She was right in saying that it was the 
equivalent of a rope-end — it had been tightly wrung 
out, and it fell heavier than a rope. The long red 
weals followed each cut, and she set her teeth under 
the pain. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


209 


He had not said a word more, and she did not 
cry out. It never occurred to her to struggle, for 
she was like a child in his grip, and it would but 
have completed her humiliation. The hot anger 
and grief in her heart swelled up and choked her, 
and the temper he had justly feared blinded him. 
The first he knew of the weight of his own blows 
was his wife slipping quietly to his feet, her bruised 
shoulders a sickening witness to his strength. 

He lifted her and laid her in bed again, drawing 
the sheet over her up to her neck. Then he closed 
the shutters and barred out the dreadful daylight, 
and before he left he mechanically sprinkled her 
face with water and saw the colour coming back to 
her lips. Di was too strong to swoon like other 
women — she had never gone off like this before, ex- 
cept — except at Agra when the child died. He 
was not sorry as yet ; he did not feel anything ex- 
cept a grim satisfaction that she would not attempt 
to see the Greville off now. 

He finished dressing and ordered his own pony, 
riding off in the cool of the morning to the town. 
He had not heard, as his wife had, of the crusier’s 
probable departure at daybreak, for her information 
had come from Mrs. Ritchie Stern the day before, 
and in Lewin’s letter he had not been sure when 
they would go — -at least, he had said he was not 
sure. When Major Churton rode on to the wharf 
the first reaction came over him and took the mo- 
mentary form of disappointment, for fading out of 
the harbour, her smoke a trail on the horizon, was 
the cruiser, and he saw that he was too late. Then 
the other view of what he had done rose before him, 
and the blind passion that had driven him into im- 
mediate revenge on the person nearest at hand 
seemed to die out with the Greville' s smoke trail. 
He should have dealt with the man first, not with 


210 


THE RAT-TRAP 


that poor woman, whose hinted accusations were 
true enough when one was cool to listen to them. 
He had been too angry to heed, and his conscience 
did not accuse him of vices more than other men’s, 
while it had seemed to him that she was worse than 
many wives. He had been unjust to begin with — 
brutal to end with. In his stupid rage he had let 
Lewin go scot free, while the woman bore the brunt 
of it. His eyes followed the Greville over the edge 
of the horizon with the keener humiliation because 
he was a strong man with the reserve which many 
years had taught him, and it was bitter to realise 
himself in the wrong. He had believed in his own 
manliness at least ; now he felt that he despised him- 
self, and he was too honest to prevaricate. 

There were not many people on the wharf, for 
Captain Stern’s movements had been left uncertain 
until the last moment. Mrs. Ritchie Stern and Mrs. 
Lewin were standing together close to the w^ater’s 
edge, as if unanimously they had pressed after the 
ship as far as they dared. Their ponies were held 
at a little distance, Liscarton’s vagaries making it 
unsafe to take him very near the unguarded edge of 
the quay. The Commissioner was there too, and 
Arthur White and Brissy Nugent, no one else. It 
was White who saw the motionless figure of the O. 
C.T. first, and rode up to him. 

“ Ah, Churton ! You were too late,” he said, 
shaking hands cordially. I was afraid you might 
be. It’s an awful pull to get down from Maitso so 
early.” 

“ Yes ! ” 

The grave face under the white helmet made the 
Attorney-General leap to a wrong conclusion. 

“ Were you ordered out last night ? No ? Heard 
nothing of the row ? ” 

“Where was it?” The steady, dark eyes came 


THE RAT-TRAP 


21 1 

back from the last glimpse of the Greville and fixed 
themselves on White’s red pleasant face. 

“ At Government House. Halton has just been 
telling me. He knew nothing of it, any more than 
I, for he rode down to see me last night, and didn’t 
get back until eleven or half-past. I’m to meet the 
Administrator later, but I don’t suppose I shall 
hear much more. He makes light of it — says it 
was a flash in the pan, and rather amusing, but I 
know I shouldn’t have cared to face a couple of 
hundred niggers after the ultimatum about the 
crops. I’m going to ask Mrs. Lewin what really 
happened.” 

“ Mrs. Lewin ! ” 

Yes, she was in it all. Lewin had gone down 
to the club to say good-bye to you all, I suppose — 
you missed him, by the way?” (“Yes!” said 
Churton bitterly, “ I am sorry I did ! ”) — “ and Mrs. 
Lewin heard something of the disturbance and got 
in a funk and rushed up to Government House. 
Very sensible thing to do, only unfortunately she 
got into the middle of it.” 

This was Gregory’s very natural explanation of 
her presence there, as Mrs. Lewin had already 
found. She accepted it dully, with an added feeling 
of fear at his facility. Churton’s eyes wandered to 
her for a minute across the quay, and he thought 
she looked as if last night’s strain and this morn- 
ing’s parting had tried her, and was gentler than 
usual in his manner when she greeted him. 

“ I am sorry you arrived too late to see Ally,” 
she said, “ he hoped to catch you at the club last 
night. I was to say good-bye for him.” 

He thought of that helpless figure with scarred 
shoulders that he had laid on the bed, but he did 
not wince. His voice, as he asked her about the 
trouble at Government House, was so kind and 


212 


THE RAT-TRAP 


sympathetic, that it came to nearer making her 
break down than all that had gone before. 

I was very much frightened," she said. 
“ Though Mr. Gregory says that there was no 
danger. He cleared the stoep with a shambok — 
that was all!" She tried to smile, and her eyes 
were rather misty. 

“ You look as if you had had about enough of 
it ! " he said, unconscious of the effect of the morn- 
ing sunlight on his own face. He wished too that 
she had not, with her few words, drawn him a pic- 
ture of Gregory and the shambok — it reminded him 
of his own action this morning. Men like himself 
and Gregory — men proud of their masculine quality 
of strength — seemed of a brutal type to him just 
now. 

“ I feel rather as if I had been to three balls all at 
once, and danced into daylight — that is all. Dissi- 
pation always gives me the same cheap feeling as a 
great strain. Mrs. Stern is coming home to break- 
fast with me to cheer me up, she is leaving in the 
mail this afternoon, unfortunately, or I should try 
and persuade her to stay for a few days." 

“ 1 hear there is another cruiser signalled at Port 
Albert," said Mrs. Ritchie, as she turned from 
Arthur White, to whom she had been talking. 
“ The Skate I think it must be — I suppose you all 
know Captain Tullock? The bay will be quite 
lively this afternoon with our departure and his 
arrival. I shall see your wife then, of course. Major 
Churton ? " 

She is seedy this morning, but she may feel well 
enough to come down," he* said composedly. 
“ Good-bye, Mrs. Lewin, take care of yourself." 

She wondered why he was so particularly kind 
to her, and if he would have been could he only 
have known all the inward workings of her heart I 


THE RAT-TRAP 


213 


Life would be a little humiliating were it not for its 
power of secrecy. As Bute Churton's big figure 
disappeared along the narrow street to the town, 
Leoline looked after him and guessed nothing of 
the irony of their relations with each other, for he 
was thinking that worthless fellows like Lewin were 
’ ' with wives like this, while she shrank from 




“ Major Chui 
never noticed it before ; but I am sure he ought 
to get away. I have grown selfish with my own 
concerns.” 

“ He looks as if he had had some kind of shock,” 
said Mrs. Ritchie, with her fatal intuition. I 
wonder what made him late ! ” 


CHAPTER XIV 


The confidence of two young married women is 
amongst the most interesting experiences to be 
obtained ; but it is about as easy to get at by an 
outsider as a Masonic ceremony of initiation. For 
a time they are bound to skirmish over the surface 
of facts, and compare notes on their households. 
From this they may advance to their husbands, but 
it is not till they reach Themselves and their own 
point of view that they are really instructive. Had 
Mrs. Ritchie Stern been remaining in Key Island, it 
is possible that she and Mrs. Lewin might have 
reached that stage when a broken sentence conveys 
more to the sympathetic hearer than a whole ex- 
planatory treatise would do to one who had not the 
key to such mysteries. But the hours she spent at 
the bungalow were too contracted for this ; only the 
stress of their mutual circumstances could have 
made them get as far as stage number two, for they 
did talk of their husbands. 

“ I am glad Alaric has gone with Captain Stern,” 
Leoline said frankly, because she had something to 
conceal in her piteous knowledge of Ally. “ It 
makes the journey at least so much less tedious. 
And I hope they will be pals — that is my husband’s 
inevitable word, so you must excuse it.” 

“ It is so much more expressive than friends, or 
even chums,” said Mrs. Ritchie pensively. “ To 
214 


THE RAT-TRAP 


215 

'par always suggests a comfortable arm-in-arm 
state of intimacy, eh ? ” ' 

“ Exactly ! Ally makes friends rather easily.” 
The last words were almost abrupt. 

“ I don’t think Ritchie is so good at that as at 
listening. If you know what I mean, other men 
make friends with him, and he listens. I should 
think Captain Lewin was always very popular.” 

“ Invariably. I cannot remember, on looking 
back through my life, any single person who knew 
Ally and disliked him.” 

“ It is rather a fatal gift at times, — if you do not 
mind my saying so.” 

Chum did not answer directly. She spoke with 
a touch of unintentional wistfulness. “ Captain 
Stern gave me a sense of such innate control. He 
is like one of those Biblical examples that are 
greater by reason of ruling themselves than the 
noisier men who take cities. It always struck me 
as such a very sane ideal. ... I hope he will 
be a friend of Ally’s ! ” 

Mrs. Ritchie looked at her with the full bounty 
of her nature, and her words were not so irrelevant 
as they seemed. 

“ My eldest boy is like me rather than his father, 
and I am quite sorry! It is dreadful to have to 
look out for your own little failings, and recognise 
them. They seem such much more nasty little 
things in some one else ; and yet I always know 
that they are just mine.” 

“ You must hate leaving the children I ” said 
Mrs. Lewin slowly — just as Blanche had meant her 
to do. 

“ Yes ! ” she responded. “ But I would rather 
have them, though on the other side of the world. 
Just as I would rather have my sailor, even though 
I cannot always follow his ship.” 


2i6 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“ Captain Lewin has a great objection to having 
children while he is on foreign service — particularly 
in a hot climate/’ said Leoline quietly. She was 
looking down, her long lashes a brown shadow on 
her unflushed cheeks, and her manner was too com- 
posed for resignation. Suddenly she raised her eyes 
with a flash that seemed to come all across the 
room to Mrs. Ritchie. 

“ I was so awfully disappointed ! ” she said, 
almost in a whisper. At first I longed for 
one ” 

Her voice trailed into silence. Mrs. Ritchie held 
her breath. The hint of being contented with 
things as they were now frightened her. 

“ You will not always be abroad — at least in such 
places as this,” she said hurriedly. 

“ No. One begins to see though, that there are 
more selfish advantages to be gained from married 
life without a nursery. It isn’t that Ally doesn’t 
want children — he will some day. But then — I 
mightn’t, you see.” 

“ You will,” said Mrs. Ritchie consolingly. Let 
alone the feeling you will have that you ought to 
(I wish we didn’t have these feelings, but women 
keep the conscience of the household, always ! ), 
you will want to because it is natural. You needn’t 
be afraid.” She waited a minute, meeting those 
shining eyes steadily, and reiterated, “ You needn’t 
be afraid.” 

Leoline turned her face to the window, and looked 
across the garden, with its hot, dusty roses, to the 
latched gate through which Ally had gone to, and 
come from. Government House. At the gate a 
shadow stood, and a voice said, under breath, “ I 
never came this way — before ! ” She thought of 
the child denied her because of Ally’s selfish fear of 
discomfort, and the safeguard of its presence in her 


THE RAT-TRAP 


217 


arms now ; for she might be called in this a good 
woman, that had she been a mother, she would not 
have been afraid, not even of that dangerous prox- 
imity. As it was, in spite of Blanche Stern’s pres- 
ence throughout the day, there was a horribly lonely 
feeling about the bungalow, and after the rush of her 
departure had died away, the empty rooms seemed 
as if they listened for a step. The fear of being 
alone and of listening also made Leoline Lewin in- 
sist on riding down to the harbour again to see her 
off, and for the second time in twenty-four hours 
she found herself loitering about on the wharf 
among the walls of coal, waiting with that horrible 
sense of departure for the boat to start. There is 
nothing more trying to those left behind than one 
of these lingering “ send-offs ” — the going on board 
and forced little conversations with one ear always 
attentive for the bell and “ Any more for the shore ? ” 
— the interminable time of standing about on the 
quay while the mails are got in, and the boat turns 
so very slowly from the shore — the waving of hand- 
kerchiefs, and hollow cheering, and then the going 
home with a blank feeling that life is just the same 
in its dull grooves, and all the chance of movement 
and adventure has gone out with the ship beyond 
the horizon line. It is a particularly depressing 
ceremony in Key Island, whose inhabitants feel it a 
prison at the best of times, but it seems to possess 
a kind of hideous fascination to the residents, who 
never let a boat depart without thronging on the 
quay and wishing vainly that they were going with 
her. 

There was a much larger gathering to see Mrs. 
Ritchie off than there had been for the Greville. 
The Gilderoys, Captain Nugent, the Arthur Whites, 
Miss Denver, Mrs. Clayton with the gunner’s boy 
in tow, — Mrs. Lewin counted them over with 


2i8 


THE RAT-TRAP 


wearied eyes and found none missing save the 
Churtons. They were not there and Captain Gilde- 
roy amicably suggested that Diana had got a head- 
ache from too many echos, and the Major was 
forced to stay away to cover her indisposition. 

But does she drink, Captain Gilderoy ? ” Mrs. 
Clayton asked eagerly, her pretty vulgar face thrust 
up to his. She had experienced the roughness 
of Diana's manner when there was no need to be 
ingratiating, and sought for the joints in her 
armour. 

“ I didn’t say that, Mrs. Clayton ! " Captain Gilde- 
roy raised his cynical eyebrows, and smiled as a 
dog snarled, on one side of his mouth. His “ smil- 
ing acquaintance ” with Mrs. Clayton had developed, 
with no desire on his part, to a more conventional 
one, and a further knowledge of her had intensified 
his sentiments with regard to her rather than other- 
wise. He disliked Mrs. Clayton every bit as much 
as he did Mrs. Churton, and his comments on her 
freedom from social restrictions were at least as 
withering as on Diana, but that Eva Clayton had 
not the capacity to guess. “ I did not say she 
drank,” he said in his most pleasant manner, “ but 
she has the advantage of a strong head ! She can 
take two drinks to my one ; I have seen her get 
through two tumblers of whiskey and soda when I 
stopped prudently at the second.” 

“ You don’t say so ! ” Mrs. Clayton’s loud, vacant 
laugh jarred after Gilderoy’s polished words — he 
spoke charmingly, and his voice was deep and 
rather sweet, — and she caught her gunner by the 
arm. 

“ Mr. Rennie, listen ! Captain Gilderoy says that 
Mrs. Churton drinks — that’s why she isn’t here to- 
day. She can toss off five whiskeys faster than the 
men. Disgusting, isn't it ! ” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


219 


Young Rennie was a fresh-faced boy, with eyes 
which still danced carelessly with youth. All Mrs. 
Clayton’s tuition had not yet left its impress on 
his smooth, flushed face, but it was tainting his 
tongue. 

“ By Jove ! ” he said. “ What fun ! I’ll have a 
drinking match with her one night — get her well 
on and stake glass for glass.” 

“ Yes, do,” Mrs. Clayton said eagerly. “ It would 
be so amusing!” and Miss Denver turned round 
and laughed too, but without spite. She was a 
very tall girl, whose clothes were always a bad 
copy of the last garrison lady’s who had come to 
the Station, and there was a certain exuberance 
about her that made women — nice women — say 
that she had something maternal even in her gen- 
erous girlhood. Men, being coarser or more prac- 
tical, called her a finely-built girl, and thought of the 
children she might bear them. 

Leoline Lewin heard the comments on Di and the 
laughter, and moved by instinct a little nearer Mrs. 
Stern. Perhaps she was out of tune with her world 
to-day, but it seemed to her as if the whole of her 
surroundings were shoddy, — the very tone of the 
people was like the little native huts with their lack 
of stability and general uncleanness. When Brissy 
Nugent appeared at her side, as if her husband’s 
absence constituted him her cavalier, she turned 
away almost like a pettish child with a feeling of 
aversion to his familiar burnt face and immaculate 
riding-dress. She felt as if she knew exactly what 
he was going to say, too, before he said it ; but 
all Brissy’s conversation appeared the inevitable. 

“ Old Ally Sloper must be somewhere about lat. 
20 by now, I suppose,” he said, as they stood at the 
liner’s stern, waiting with melancholy patience to 
say good-bye to Mrs. Ritchie. 


220 


THE RAT-TRAP 


Yes, I suppose so.” 

‘‘ Hope you won’t be very lonely.” 

Do you ? ” For the life of her she could not 
avoid the little ironical question. 

“ Pity I’m not a woman, and then I could come 
up and stay with you and keep you company — 
eh ? Wouldn’t there be a lot of talk ? ” 

“ If you were a woman ? ” 

“ No, as we are. You knew what I meant, Mrs. 
Lewin.” 

Oh, this wearisome talk that led nowhere, and 
always had a vacant laugh in it. And the same- 
ness of the fringe of ravenalas lifting solemn hands 
along the shore — and the blue bay — and the zinc- 
roofed, gim-crack town. She looked at the glare of 
sunlight on Maitso and Mitsinjovy, and her eyes 
ached, and then at the black walls of coal to cool 
them, as she had done hundreds of times before. 
They were all in the rat-trap, and her fellow rats 
were no better off than she — save that perhaps the 
others had not the soul-haunting sweet dread that 
she had put behind her all day. For when she was 
free of these people and went back alone to the 
bungalow, there was nothing to prevent her think- 
ing of the nearness of Government House, and the 
short cut through the grounds, while all the rooms 
listened for a step. 

She heard Hamilton Gurney urging some one to 
come and drink a final ceho with the U.C.L. rnen, 
and her heart sank, for this was always a last cere- 
mony. Then Mrs. Stern came up and said good- 
bye, her blue eyes very large and gentle, with their 
strange gift of divination, and by a mutual impulse 
the two tall women kissed each other. Even after 
the boat had swung out into the harbour and passed 
between the gates, Leoline stood watching it as she 
had the Greville that morning, as if it carried away 


THE RAT-TRAP 


221 


yet another barrier of her safety, and lingered to 
chat with one and another of her acquaintance. 
Captain Gilderoy came up to ask her if she were 
selling any of the ponies — she could not ride three 
during Captain Lewin’s absence, and he rather fan- 
cied Snapshot. She caught at the discussion, and 
suggested his coming over one day to look at Nan- 
ton, Ally’s last purchase. 

“ Will you come back with me now, you and Mrs. 
Gilderoy ? ” she said, with a strange eagerness. 
“ And dine ? I am very much alone.” 

“ Thanks, I wish we could, but we are bound to 
the Jacksons’.” 

“ Are they at By-Jovey ? Another night then.” 

‘‘ Thanks.” 

No hope of rescue there ! They all seemed to be 
engaged, those who had useful wives, and the un- 
attached men she would not ask, with the pattern 
of Mrs. Clayton and Miss Denver before her eyes ; 
for, as Mrs. Clayton passed her with Mr. Rennie, 
Leoline heard the latter say, I’ve got the hump 
with that boat going — haven’t you ? Let’s go up 
to the Denvers’ and make a noise ! ” Mrs. Lewin’s 
lips curled a little. She would not make her house 
into a recreation ground for the idle men of the 
Station, even though of better manners and more 
intellectual tastes than this fresh-faced boy, who 
after all, was harmless enough in his ill-breeding. 
“ Let’s go up to the Denvers’ and make a noise ” 
was no worse than “ Let us drop in on Mrs. Lewin 
because her husband is away.” No, such help as 
that would not do. She must face it alone. 

The shadow of Tsofotra, the Sunset Gate, stretched 
far across the sea as she gathered up her reins and 
rode home by herself, with so little attention to the 
way she went that Liscarton took advantage to 
snatch a hasty supper from the low bushes and tall 


222 


THE RAT-TRAP 


grass, munching as he went, and expectant of a call 
to order that did not come. Mrs. Lewin had other 
thoughts to fill her mind, and as she sat at her 
solitary dinner, she faced the new problems of her 
existence with saddened eyes. It seemed to her 
as if her life were all read backward,” and her in- 
tentions twisted by providence to a horrible issue. 
She had been honest in her desire to spur her 
husband on to success, and her first efforts to attract 
Gregory had been actually on his behalf ; but where 
had she gone astray? P'or the original strategy of 
arousing his interest for Aliy’s sake, coupled with a 
little innocent enjoyment of her own power no 
doubt, had gradually altered its quality to a personal 
pleasure in the companionship of a stronger nature, 
and so she had drifted to this dangerous brink of a 
new relation between them. Looking back, it 
seemed to her as if all the mischief had sprung from 
that night when she left her husband in a drunken 
sleep to cover his incapacity as best she might with 
the Administrator. And yet that night at least she 
had hardly realised that Gregory existed as a man : 
he was nothing but a power to be feared. She 
could not see the natural development of the situa- 
tion from the affinity of such natures as Gregory’s 
with her own, which was its feminine complement. 
All that her mind could grasp was the plain fact 
that bound in duty and honour to a man to whom 
she had submitted the most sacred rights of her 
womanhood, her very nature yearned treacherously 
away from him to another who stood for ever be- 
yond the pale. Alaric had shown himself a weak 
man, and represented the failure of her life ; but it 
was her instinct to hide her failures, and to make 
the best of her own action in marrying him, rather 
than to ask the world’s sympathy and justify herself 
in infidelity. Where neither teaching nor principles 


THE RAT-TRAP 


223 


would triumph over Nature, her dear self-respect 
stands like a guardian angel to such a woman as 
Leoline Lewin, and becomes a giant virtue. 

She took some work and moved into the further 
room when her dinner was over, a very gracious 
feminine figure with the atmosphere of civilisation 
about her dainty gown and chic head, contrasting 
strangely with the lawless tropical world outside the 
open windows. All the danger of the sensuous 
Earth seemed to be threatening her out of the night 
and its insinuating scents, — all the safety of conven- 
tion to be inside the pretty room with its electric 
light where she sat. As the monotonous needle 
passed through and through the silk, she was school- 
ing herself to fearlessness, and soothing her own 
nerves by the occupation, until she ceased to start 
at a rustle on the garden paths, and was no longer 
haunted by that mad fear of one man’s approach. 
So composed had she grown at last, that she missed 
the very step that she had expected along the stoep, 
and the opening of the door by the butler. The 
first intimation she had that her fate was hard upon 
her was Abdallah’s voice announcing the Adminis- 
trator almost as he withdrew to his own quarters again. 

She put aside the work on her lap carefully, run- 
ning the needle in and out the silk that she might 
not lose it, and rose without hurry, every precious 
second gained helping her to recover her breath, 
which seemed to have been swept away by the 
sound of his name. As she came forward to meet 
her guest there was not a tremor about her, nothing 
but the composed grace of a well-bred woman in 
her own house. 

Gregory had stood still under the electric lamps ; 
the light was strong in spite of the soft red shades, 
and it seemed to show them to each other in merci- 
less revelation. He held out his hand to take hers 


224 


THE RAT-TRAP 


in conventional greeting, and let it go again after 
the legitimate few seconds during which palm rests 
in palm. They had not really spoken to each other, 
save in broken disturbed sentences, since the Depu- 
tation interrupted his avowal of his reason for send- 
ing Lewin away alone. It seemed to her that they 
must take it up just there, as if nothing had inter- 
vened, and she sought desperately for something to 
avert it. The hours that lay between his whisper- 
ing voice, saying that he could not part from her, 
and the present moment rolled back into nothing- 
ness. They were not, and this sentence to be an- 
swered still seemed to hang in the air. 

“ I saw Captain Lewin off this morning,” she said 
baldly, as if proving that what he had said was true. 
He could not part from her — well, he had not. In 
another sense, the sentence was a warning that ques- 
tioned his right to be there. “ I saw Captain Lewin 
off this morning — I am alone ! ” added the signifi- 
cant pause. 

“ I know.” He did not deny the accusation of 
his having paid her a visit at this late hour, if she 
intended to insinuate it. He accepted it rather, and 
a clock struck nine in the further room as if to punc- 
tuate and affirm his acceptance. 

Then there was one of those strange pauses which 
seem like the visible boundary between one phase 
of existence and another — the possible crossing the 
rubicon, the possible drawing back and remaining 
in safety. It comes before many a declaration, 
while Mr. Brown and Miss Smith are still conscious 
of their former titles, though the next instant may 
convert them into John and Jane to each other. 

“ Oh, the little more, and how much it is ! 

And the little less, and what worlds away ! 

How a sound shall quicken content to bliss. 

Or a breath suspend the hearPs best play, 

And life be a proof of this I ” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


227 


so long ago. At least you could only have given 
me my conge. I don’t understand beating about 
the bush, if that is all that one wants of a woman, 
because it can’t be much loss if she says no — there 
are a great many more who will say yes ! ” 

She thought of her husband’s often assertion that 
every woman in the island had had a try for 
Gregory’s Powder,” and winced to see that he had 
appreciated his own power of choice — if he had 
chosen. She almost hated her own sex for giving 
him some ground at least for the brutality of his 
speech, and herself for listening to him. 

“ With you,” he went on, with that same terrible 
finality of a statement that could not be questioned, 
“ it is different. I should be depreciating my own 
property. Some day I mean to make you my 
wife ” — he drew a breath, and added her name, as 
if to say it were a natural joy — “ Leo ! ” he whis- 
pered, the familiar contraction of Leoline giving her 
a little thrill of pleasure, even while it seemed dread- 
ful to her that she felt she had no right to flinch 
from his bold statement. She had not thought over 
the situation without facing such an issue, as he had 
seen was inevitable, and she was too honest and too 
strong herself to weakly cry out that she had not 
considered this, or made up her mind. She had 
counted the cost to Alaric Lewin and to herself ; 
perhaps passion weighed down the scale in which 
she placed her own risk, but she knew that her de- 
cision had been tacitly in favour of such a step as 
Gregory prognosticated to her mind by speaking of 
her as his wife. There was just one terrible differ- 
ence in their point of view that she could not real- 
ise ; his words simply meant to her the horrible pub- 
licity and degradation of the Divorce Court — but in 
his mind was that olden letter of which his own 
seemed a reflex — 


228 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“ Set Uriah in the forefront of the battle . . . 

that he may die. . . . ” 

All the wrong against her husband that was cred- 
ible to her was done to his name. That Alaric 
must suffer from the blow she saw, and knowing no 
injury that he had done her, it seemed an intolerable 
thing that she meditated in cutting the tie between 
them. She knew him for a weak man too ; what 
would be the result, to a nature like his, of her de- 
sertion ? If every fibre in her heart had not seemed 
to her to be rooted in the man beside her, she would 
never have permitted herself the choice ; but for the 
time being her whole soul was in revolt, demanding 
its desire, crying out that its very life depended on 
the chance of happiness. She could not argue or 
reason just now ; she felt the necessity of her own 
being a greater thing than the slighter nature’s pain. 
Was she always to be sacrificed to Alaric’s weak- 
ness ? her heart cried out impatiently — Ally, who 
was as easily comforted as a child by a new toy for 
the one that had been broken ! Within a week of 
her flight he would be playing tennis, and petted 
and consoled by other women for his unmerited 
misfortune. She saw him more harshly than ever 
before, and her velvet eyes grew sombre as she 
raised them to Gregory’s watchful face. There was 
no remorse or vacillation in him — there would be 
no repining word hereafter. What he did he had 
stood by all his life, and he neither excused nor for- 
swore himself. He was a hard man at worst — a 
strong man at best. Some day she would know 
him for unscrupulous, but always and for ever she 
would love him, because his qualities were the es- 
sential for her, and also because love goes deeper 
than reason and outruns rule. 

“ I am not asking you to take such a step to- 
morrow or next day,” he urged in that under- 


THE RAT-TRAP 


229 


breathed voice, “ only it would be unfair not to set 
my ultimate goal before you.” Then his manner 
grew warmer, he half leaned against her lace-clad 
shoulder, and his arm stole around her waist. “ Is 
it so hard to think of me as a husband, darling ? I 
believe you are half afraid of me as a lover ! ” 

She felt the masculine eyes above her dominating 
her, and her head drawn back against his shoulder. 
As he kissed her again and again, closing the velvet 
eyes and holding her lips with his own until she was 
breathless, his constraining clasp gradually bound 
her close to him. Through the thin linen suit she 
could feel every tightened muscle of his body, and for 
a moment was blinded by his caresses. She had not 
realised until then the feebleness of her own passions 
compared with his. It seemed as if he were built 
upon such a gigantic scale that lesser mortals dwin- 
dled beside him as beside one such as the old Greeks 
used to believe was endowed by a deity in par- 
entage. 

But when she slipped out of her gown that night 
she was conscious of a painful soreness, as though 
her soft elastic flesh had been badly bruised. There 
was no mark on the white skin, but she could not 
pass her hand down her side without feeling the 
hurt. It could not have been a blow, for a blow 
would have left a visible bruise. Yet her very mus- 
cles ached. 

For a moment, as she rubbed her hand softly to 
and fro over the warm satin surface of her body, she 
could not understand the cause. Then her face 
flamed. She was half ashamed and half exultant. 
For she realised the strength of Gregory's clasp, and 
felt as Danae may have felt in the grip of her god. 


CHAPTER XV 

La paix n’est que le sommeil de la guerre .” — French Proverb. 


“ There must be something wrong between the 
Churtons,” said Mrs. Gilderoy, taking off her hat 
and sitting down beside Mrs. Lewin to chat. 

“ What is the matter ? ” asked Leoline, in some 
surprise. “ I haven’t seen Di for ever so long, 
though all the rest of you have been most good in 
cheering my solitude. Major Churton is away, 
isn’t he ? ” 

“ He has gone for a ride round the island. That 
is how I know something is wrong. It is our one 
resource for mental disturbance — if a man has been 
refused, or a woman found out, they arrange to ride 
round the island until things calm down again. 
You see, we can’t get out of it, so we begin to run 
round and round to ease our distress.” 

“ Like rats in a trap ! ” said Mrs. Lewin absently, 
her mind with Halton’s simile. 

“ Exactly. Churton said he was going to shoot 
on the Tableland, but young Rennie, who went out 
there some days later, found him starting for Africa 
Point and Sand Bay. He will come home by 
Hashish Valley, and I hope he won’t come in for 
the trouble there ! ” 

“ There is no further disturbance, is there ? Mr. 
Halton told me positively that he would leave in 
the next mail. But that may be desperation ! ” 

“ Poor man ! I don’t wonder. He has been kept 
hanging about on the chance of a rising, when he 
might just as well have gone, by the same boat as 
230 


THE RAT-TRAP 


231 


Mrs. Ritchie Stern. Look how tamely the snuff- 
coloured people took the crop-burning, after all ! ” 

“ Rather ominously so, I thought. I feel some- 
how as if we were not through yet.” 

“ Well, what there was to see, you saw ! I can’t 
think how you lived through that night at Govern- 
ment House, Chum. I expected to see your hair 
grey next morning.” 

“ It was really not so terrifying as it sounded 
afterwards. Mr. Gregory was so cool too — he was 
almost insolent to the natives.” 

“ I suppose you expected to find Captain Lewin 
there. You have not heard anything of him, by 
the way — I mean cabled through from Capetown, 
for instance — have you ? ” 

“Not a word. All I know is that the boat 
reached Port Cecil, and it was also confirmed that 
his regiment was up there.” 

“ So he will have his friends about him, any way. 
It is a month since he left, isn’t it ? Aren’t you 
very anxious ? ” 

“ No, I don’t think so. It would be so unreason- 
able, because I know that I could not hear. If he 
wrote at once via Capetown the mail will bring it. 
But Ally is a bad correspondent, and if he were 
very much taken up with the business in hand he 
might forget and miss the mail. And I might 
never hear at all until he came back ! ” 

“ You take it very philosophically. I know if I 
didn’t hear from my good man under the circum- 
stances, I should begin writing abusive letters to the 
Government at Capetown.” 

“ I think they find Key Island quite enough of a 
worry, without having to calm disaffected wives 
there, as it is,” said Mrs. Lewin, with a pang of 
conscience. How often had she thought of Ally 
through these halcyon summer days that had drifted 


232 


THE RAT-TRAP 


past her so softly and easily — they seemed, on look- 
ing back, merely a golden haze ? She had thought 
of him, indeed, as the fly in her amber, and had 
thrust the thought away when conscience pressed 
too hard. “ I can’t think why they brigaded us 
with South Africa,” she added, more to dodge her 
own thought than with any real interest in the Home 
Government’s disposal of the Empire. “ Mauritius 
has its own governor ; why shouldn’t we ? ” 

“We are too small. And besides, they never 
give Gregory’s Powder an absolute monarchy — 
perhaps when he goes Key’land will be made a 
Crown colony. I am sorry for Capetown having 
such a firebrand tacked on to them, myself. He 
was under Milner once, and they nearly quarrelled ; 
but the man of men he hates is Kitchener. Greg- 
ory always wants the troops at his instant disposal 
when he sets out to soothe the wily native, and 
Kitchener won’t have it. Can’t you imagine Greg- 
ory trying to snatch a few soldiers when the General 
is not looking, and the poor wretched officer in 
command being dragged in two, like a Christmas 
cracker, between them ? ” 

“ And going off with a bang,” said Mrs. Lewin, 
laughing. “ I am sure I should, in his place. Mr. 
Gregory started in the Army himself — you know 
that, of course.” 

“Yes; I believe he served with Roberts for a 
short time — a verj/ short time ! He never could 
obey his senior officers. So he was taken out of 
the Army and put into the Colonial service. 
Apropos of nothing. Chum, you are not looking 
well. When are you going to Vohitra?” 

“ I am too much afraid of your thinking it a 
proof of mental disturbance,” said Mrs. Lewin, with 
a languid smile. “ When people ride round the 
island it always begins at Port Albert, doesn’t it ? ” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


233 


** Generally ; though in very bad cases I have 
known them ride right through. the Rano Valley, 
and up to Vohitra that way — on some one else’s 
pony, of course. Do you notice that the pony is 
the pledge of affection here? We don’t give en- 
gagement-rings — we give ponies. ‘ He has given 
her a pony ’ is tantamount to saying, ‘ they are en- 
gaged,’ and if you ride any man’s cattle save your 
husband’s you are accepting serious attentions.” 

“ What a dreadful thought ! For we have never 
really bought Liscarton, Captain Nugent would 
lend him to me, and I am so dishonest that I have 
not returned him yet.” 

“ Well, my dear, it is such a known thing that 
Bristles worships your untied shoestrings, and hangs 
upon the tilt of your Panama, that no one would 
be surprised if you took his entire stud ! ” 

“ I suppose I have no character ! ” said Mrs. 
Lewin resignedly. 

“ Not a shred ! You are much too good-looking, 
and your clothes suggest Bond Street and general 
wickedness.” 

Again Leoline laughed, for she was content that 
Key Island should bracket her with Brissy Nugent. 
Her conscience was nearly dormant during those 
days, and only roused occasionally when a gust of 
remorse or realisation swept over her reasonlessly 
and made her shudder. Then it would pass, and 
she would face the situation steadily again. Had 
she been in England, among influences which had 
moulded her life, and with the chance of a larger 
outlook, she would not have deemed such a state 
of mind as her present one to be possible to her. 
That her whole self could be absorbed in a man 
whom to love was frankly dishonourable, would 
have seemed to her impossible while she had the 
intelligence to foresee and fight it down. But it is 


234 


THE RAT-TRAP 


impossible in a land policed by the conventions of 
countless generations, where at least one lives in 
wholesome fear of one’s next-door neighbour, to 
realise or understand the influence of the waste 
places of this earth under the sway of the Imperial 
Government. Men lose their boundaries there, and 
be a woman what she will she is bound to feel the 
influence in her thoughts if not her actions. The 
laxity of the manners and morals in such rat-traps 
as Key Island is due to the opinion of the majority, 
for sin is after all a matter of the law of nations, 
and there is no universal standard of right and 
wrong. When the thermometer stands at 90° in 
the shade, and Society consists of forty persons 
who must go on meeting each other indefinitely, it 
is probable that the forty will tacitly agree to over- 
look each other’s peccadihoes for the sake of com- 
fort. And it is hard to be less charitable to one’s 
own failings than one’s neighbour will be. 

The stronger nature with which she was in close 
intercourse, too, was influencing if it could not en- 
tirely dominate Leoline. Gregory had absolutely 
kept his word with regard to their relations with 
each other ; he did not ask her for a material proof 
of her affection, but it was not in human nature 
that they should not be often together and alone 
without some such hint of passion as had overtaken 
them on the evening of Alaric’s departure. His 
visits were spasmodic, and dependent to a certain 
extent on caution while Halton was still at Govern- 
ment House, but she never knew when he might 
not appear, and had given herself up to receiving 
him with a submission that yet kept her nerves on 
edge. Sometimes they merely talked — intimately, 
it is true, for he unfolded his plans to her as to no 
one else — but with hardly a kiss to disturb her 
pulses. It was a relief to Gregory to confide in a 


THE RAT-TRAP 


35 


mind which he found both receptive and capable of 
following him, even of counselling him at times. 
He made her the partner of plans he would not 
have trusted to a fellow-man, and would have 
missed her from his life as a confidante, apart from 
her attraction as a woman ; for the craving for sym- 
pathy is as great as the craving for alcohol — once 
aroused, it becomes a habit, and is hard to satisfy. 
During the greater part of his life Gregory had 
taught himself to live alone, and regard men and 
women alike as likely to be a hindrance to him un- 
less he could make a passing use of them. Now he 
had found a helpmate he meant to bind her to him 
by the strongest tie he could fashion. 

Leoline gave regally in the expansion of all her 
forces, and made him the master of her brain and 
spirit as well as heart. Every vital power she had 
was at his disposal, and while she gloried in the be- 
stowal she was troubled that her sensations were 
not all clear gain in perfect joy. The temperate, 
uncomplicated affection she had felt for Alaric had 
in a way made her less unhappy, if also less happy, 
which was disturbing. Take it how one will, being 
in love is not a comfortable process, provided it is a 
real case of unreasoning attachment between two 
human beings — unreasoning in that the advantages 
of such an attachment do not influence the feeling 
at all. No one really enjoys violent emotion, and 
of all experiences a sexual love is most likely to be 
violent, however it may differ in degree, through a 
warmer or colder nature. “ All pleasure is nega- 
tive,” says Schopenhauer, for the fulfilment of a 
desire only concludes the pangs of it. Love as 
purely, as mentally as one may, it is a torturing joy 
— a bewildering experience that upsets and revolu- 
tionises the ordinary routine of life, and which one 
naturally resents. Who cares for the unused depths 


THE RAT-TRAP 


236 

of his being brought up to the surface, and forcing 
him to live in extremes ? It is the memory of love 
which is divine; the present experience is by no 
means so pleasant, and sooner or later brings the 
pain that is only tolerable when it has passed. 

On the day when Mrs. Gilderoy came to see her, 
Leoline was looking forward to the arrival of the 
mail with mixed feelings. It was due the next day, 
and Alfred Halton was going to leave Key Island 
by it, for there was peace in Hashish Valley and 
China Town, and the natives of Port Victoria were 
dully quiet, almost as if the burning of the crops had 
been a salutary lesson and had cowed them. There 
had been very little drunkenness in the streets of 
late — always the prevailing sin of Key Island — and 
thefts of cattle had been rare. So far things were 
well, and the removal of Halton would be an un- 
feigned relief, for Mrs. Lewin had an intuitive dread 
of him that all the rest of the population could not 
inspire. She had warned Gregory, who would 
hardly be warned because of an instinctive contempt 
at the roots of his nature for the man who had 
alw'ays been afraid to act; but the boat that took 
Alfred Halton out of her immediate life was as wel- 
come as a human rescuer, if it had not also brought 
the mail. Mrs. Lewin dreaded the mail, and the 
sight of her husband’s familiar handwriting. It 
would force her to face her own intention again, to 
consider their relations, and how she should deliber- 
ately sever herself from him. While he was absent 
there had been a certain pause in action that had 
left her finally uncommitted. 'She did not mean to 
flinch from the actual step, and yet she wished that 
his return might be delayed. 

She had not expected the ^Administrator that 
night, for he had been to Port 'Albert, and she had 
not heard of his return. His visits were almost 


THE RAT-TRAP 


237 


always made in the evening after dinner, when he 
could snatch a half-hour unobserved and likely to 
be undisturbed, and his appearance on this occasion 
was later than his usual hour. There was some- 
thing hurried and almost abrupt about his entrance 
too, partly from the fact that he was in riding dress, 
and it seemed as if he must have come straight from 
his return journey. 

She had risen rather hastily as Abdallah an- 
nounced him, and instinctively looked past his 
broad shoulders to see the white turban vanish out 
of sight before she greeted him. But he hardly 
waited for safety, and drew her into his arms with 
an usual demonstration of passion. They stood 
silent for a moment, and she was suddenly a little 
faint. Either some desperate feeling in him com- 
municated itself to her, or the violent demand of 
his nature sapped her strength. She had not the 
resistance to draw her lips away, but it was a relief 
when the interminable kiss was over. She gave an 
odd little laugh to recover herself, and laid her hand 
against his face with tender familiarity. 

“You haven’t shaved to-day! How dare you 
kiss me ? ” 

“ I know — I’m only just back. I came straight 
in.” 

“ Haven’t you been home ? ” she asked, startled. 
“ Haven’t you dined ? ” 

“Yes I ” — something seemed to strangle him in 
the one word. “ Yes — I — went home. No, don’t 
call any one. I’m going back to Government House 
to feed — later.” 

“ But, Evelyn ” — her arms suddenly tightened 
about his large loose figure ; she looked up with a 
beautiful white face — “ have you bad news ? ” 

“ No I ” — he spoke the one word with no uncer- 
tainty, but then he framed her face in his two hands 


238 


THE RAT-TRAP 


and looked hard into her eyes. “ Do you know,” 
he said fiercely, “ I am tempted to break my word 
to you ! ” 

“ How ? ” — but she knew in all her leaping blood. 

“To make you rather more mine than I have a 
right too yet, to-night.” For a minute it seemed 
that his decision hung in the balance, while she 
wondered blankly why her will seemed frozen, and 
she could not say at once, as she must do, “ I will 
not ! ” 

“ If I let you off, promise me afresh to come 
to me some day — when we are free,” he said 
urgently, the assurance of his first words startling 
her. “ You will not throw me over for some 
woman’s scruple — will you ? ” 

Such uncertainty was even more unusual than his 
taking her consent for granted, for he was anxious 
now, pleading for what he had already gained, as if 
there were some real fear of losing it. 

“ Evelyn, there is something troubling you ! ” she 
exclaimed. “ There is something wrong ! ” 

“ No, nothing — but say what I want. Promise 


“ What?” 

“ That you are mine whatever happens. That 
nothing shall stand between us.” 

She hesitated, panic-stricken. All the responsi- 
bility of such selfishness as he asked for weighed 
upon her with a sudden burden. 

“ We have decided ” she began. 

“ No, but swear it ” 

Then his mood changed as strangely as it ap- 
peared to have come upon him. He clasped her 
waist with his arm again, and dropped his head 
heavily against her breast. She almost staggered 
under his massive weight, even though he held 
her. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


239 


No, I will ask nothing of you,” he said thickly. 
“ I will trust you to give me more than I deserve, 
Leo — but you are free to choose. I am too har- 
dened a sinner for you to be bound to, or smirch 
yourself with, perhaps. And yet — I love you — love 
you ! ” 

The cry was so genuine that it frightened her for 
their safety, and she said “ Hush ” instinctively. His 
face when he raised it was lined and scarred as if 
with his own storm of feeling, and he looked harsher- 
featured and more rugged than ever. Even after 
he had regained his usual control and left her, she 
kept going over the incident with a feeling of be- 
wilderment. It was the only occasion on which 
she had seen him so upset, and he appeared to her 
almost wild — almost as if possessed by some un- 
looked-for remorse. She could but suppose that 
their mutual relations stung his sense of honour, too, 
at times, though it was a venial sin, but such a reve- 
lation was almost pitiful to her, and, strange to say, 
strengthened her own resolution to sacrifice the rest 
of the world to him, as no appeal of his could have 
done. Even the momentary danger she had been 
in of a sexual advance in their relations with each 
other did not alarm her as it had at the time. She 
realised that the danger had been there, for Greg- 
ory’s force of will had at times almost a hypnotic 
influence upon her, and where she would once have 
been confident in her own power of denial, she had 
learned to doubt herself ; but she realised also that 
it was no mere access of passion and self-indulgence 
that had made him desire a more complete posses- 
sion of her. For some reason he was afraid of a 
possible break in the tie that bound them, and 
wished to strengthen it by every means in his power. 
He judged that, once master of her body, her mo- 
rality would be uneasy until he had an established 


240 


THE RAT-TRAP 


right to such privilege, and by foregoing that claim 
he had weakened his own position with her. But 
why should he doubt her resolution now, and why 
be so suddenly anxious to secure her even to the 
extent of compromising her honour ? 

The question troubled her waking thoughts, and 
followed her even into her dreams. But she found 
no answer to her own vague disquietude, and the 
darker knowledge in Gregory’s mind was hidden 
from her. 

Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest bat- 
tle .. . that he may be smitten, and die. 

“ And it came to pass, when Joab observed the 
city, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he 
knew that valiant men were. 

“ And the men of the city went out and fought 
with Joab; and there fell some of the people of 
the servants of David ; and Uriah the Hittite died 
also.” 

For, as Gregory had said, he had been home be- 
fore he came on to the bungalow, and there he 
found that during his absence in Port Albert news 
had arrived, and awaited him. 

There had been a cable from Capetown. 


CHAPTER XVI 

Quos Deus vult perdere, dement at prius ! ” — Latin Proverb. 


The Post Office at Port Victoria is in the same 
block of buildings as the Government Office, though 
on a lower floor, and the busy staircase is thronged 
by officials as well as people coming for their mail 
or posting letters. There is no delivery in Port 
Victoria, for two excellent reasons — local commu- 
nication is carried on solely through the telephone, 
or notes by bearer, and on mail days the recipients 
of letters besiege the office for their mail, long be- 
fore the sorting is over. Most of the residents have 
a box, and prefer to call for their letters to having 
them delivered, so the postman’s duties are a farce, 
and by the time he goes his rounds he has no letters 
to carry. 

Bristow Nugent rode into town early that mail 
day, but he had business at the A.S.C. yard, and at 
the garrison office, and by the time he reached the 
Post Office it was one o’clock, and his letters had 
been waiting for him in the box for two hours. At 
the foot of the rough staircase were a group of men 
he knew — Arthur White, Archie Lysle the regi- 
mental chaplain, the harbour master, Hamilton 
Gurney, and young Rennie — and before he had 
spoken a word to them their concerned faces had 
told him that something was wrong. Although 
knowing that his private affairs could not have 
reached them before himself, his heart contracted 
with the sick throb of fear peculiar to men stationed 
in distant corners of the earth, and feeling them- 
241 


242 


THE RAT-TRAP 


selves helplessly out of reach of their nearest and 
dearest, and the good-looking animal face under the 
white helmet suddenly blanched. 

“ What’s up ? ’’ he said characteristically. 

“ It’s Lewin ” the Attorney-General answered 

as briefly and to the point as he was asked. “ They 
cabled from Capetown last night, and the details 
are in to-day.” 

“ Lewin ! — Ally ! — what about him ? ” 

“ He’s dead ! ” 

Nugent caught at the wooden banister as if 
White had struck him, and turned sharply from 
one to the other with the words he could not utter 
on his lips. They answered his questions amongst 
themselves without his asking them. 

“ He made a mess of things over the East African 
business, and — and cleared out of it.” Young 
Rennie spoke first, but shied off the explanation 
like a frightened horse. There was some darker 
meaning here than the natural fate which over- 
takes any man. Nugent’s face grew sharper with 
anxiety. 

Poor young fool ! ” said White. “ He was the 
wrong man in the wrong place. Fell in with his 
own regiment too, and made a night of it — got 
drunk most likely, and talked.” 

Talked Government secrets too — Gregory s se- 
crets ! There will be a devil of a row to hush up 
now. Gregory may have to go himself.” 

“ Serve him right ! ” put in the little Chaplain 
with unexpected savagery. “ What did he want 
sending a harmless fool like Ally into such a tight 
place ? It was Halton’s job.” 

“ Lewin went away like a sick beast, poor devil, 
somewhere into the interior.” It was Arthur White 
who seemed to know by instinct the raging ques- 
tions Nugent could not frame, and answer them with 


THE RAT-TRAP 


243 


more coherence than the rest. That was how it 
was they never found him for so long, and the news 
was delayed. It only came down to Capetown a 
few days since, and the mail picked up Hanney’s 
letter at Beira.” 

“ How did he die ? ” Brissy had found his voice 
at last. The curt words surprised himself that they 
should be in his ordinary tone. He had fancied, 
with his throat dry and burning like that, that he 
must be hoarse. “ Was it fever or a scrimmage ? " 

There was a brief pause, and the men looked at 
each other. 

“ Neither,” said White, without glancing at the 
questioner. “ He shot himself.” 

“ Funked it, by Jove ! ” The words came under 
Brissy’s breath. He did not know what it was that 
shocked him — the suggestion of cowardice to his 
mind, or the staggering realisation of the extent of 
Alaric Lewin's indiscretion to have driven him to 
such a course. It must indeed have been a disaster 
that had made Ally see no way out of it, but to 
take his own life. What, in God’s name, had he 
been doing? 

“ Does his wife know ? ” he said roughly, in his 
fear. 

Poor girl ! — no, how should she ? ” 

“ Some one must tell her. It will leak out, and 
she’ll hear it straight, if they don’t.” 

I pity the man who breaks it to her, that’s all ! ” 
It was Rennie who spoke, and his tones were 
heartfelt. “ I wouldn’t for anything the world con- 
tains ! ” 

“ Some one must.” Brissy set his white teeth and 
looked from one to the other. There was no re- 
sponse in their faces, and their eyes avoided his 
rather than otherwise. In the pause a heavy step 
sounded on the landing above, and the Administra- 


244 


THE RAT-TRAP 


tor himself appeared, leaning over the rail of the 
stair. His gaunt form and harsh face showed not 
one sign of weakness — hardly even of pity or con- 
cern — but he signed imperiously to Arthur White. 

“ Can you come up and speak with me ? ” he 
said. I want you.” 

As if by a common impulse all the men turned 
and followed the Attorney-General up the stair, and 
crowded into the narrow passage, looking with stern 
earnestness into Gregory’s face. He held some let- 
ters in his hand, and beyond him, through the open 
door of the office he had just left, Alfred Halton’s 
figure was just visible, seated by the open window. 
It was so hot at this hour of the day — being barely 
past the Miroro — and in the narrow passage between 
the offices, that the sweat hung in beads round the 
lips and on the temples of every man present, with- 
out any movement or exertion on their part, while 
the smell of the air seemed the essence of heat — a 
baked atmosphere, without actual matter to flavour 
it. 

“We were speaking of Mrs. Lewin, sir,” said the 
Attorney-General firmly. “ Does she know of Cap- 
tain Lewiii’s death ? ” 

“ Not unless some one has already ridden out and 
told her, or she is in town.” 

“ She isn’t in town, I think, because her groom 
came down at eleven and took out her mail.” 

“ She could not have heard through the mail, I 
suppose ?” said the Administrator quickly. “No, 
of course not — there was nothing but the cable 
from Capetown. My information came from Beira, 
and Mrs. Lewin would not hear from there.” 

“ They do not know any details at Capetown 
then ? ” 

“ No. Some one will have to break it to Mrs. 
Lewin.” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


245 


Again that reluctant pause, while each man in 
his own mind saw Chum as she had appeared to 
him at some • moment when she made the most 
vivid picture of herself to him individually. So, 
Rennie saw her on horseback, managing a fractious 
pony — Arthur White recalled one evening when he 
had seen her with his wife in the nursery, bending 
over a child’s cot. Hamilton Gurney fancied her 
in her own pretty shaded room, lying back against 
some coloured cushions, while he sang to her, — but 
no man offered to face her with such news as that 
the Administrator held in the loose letters in his 
hand. 

It was Bristow Nugent who spoke at last, — the 
least expected of the group. 

“ All right — I’m going.” 

He turned on his heel, as if he could not wait to 
think, and ran down the uncarpeted stairs, his spurs 
clicking and jingling, and some metal trapping or 
other adding to the audible hurry. Outside he 
caught his pony by the mane, swung into the sad- 
dle far quicker than he had ever done at a fourth 
chucker on the Polo ground, and was tearing past 
the stores and out towards Maitso Hill before any 
one on the landing had quite realised that it was 
Captain Nugent who had risen to the occasion. 

“ Bristles has no nerves,” said Rennie in selfish 
excuse. “ He was about the best man to go — he 
won’t really care much. He’s stolid.” 

“ Pity you’re so sensitive,” retorted the Chaplain 
cuttingly. “ A little of Nugent’s stolidity might 
do you good. . . . Lewin was his friend, 

too ! ” 

Such a thought was in Bristow Nugent’s mind all 
through that dusty gallop up the tangled green road, 
while the sweat poured down his brown face, and 
his heart beat thickly with his errand. Memories 


246 


THE RAT-TRAP 


of Ally — old Ally Sloper ! — at Sandhurst with him, 
when they both came perilously near being 
“ chucked ” because of a certain escapade connected 
with a frying-pan and the senior captain’s banjo; 
— that night too, when Forrester of the Duke’s 
(Forrester always did lay it on so thick !) borrowed 
his man’s uniform and went out with Ally as his 
“ girl,” Ally in a hat and feathers after the style of 
a London flower-seller! Lucky thing they were 
not spotted that time. And his own special breed 
of fox-terriers from which Ally had that bitch he 
was so fond of — what was her name ? Kiddy — yes, 
of course, after some girl on whom he was awfully 
gone. Kiddy went to India with Ally, and he con- 
fessed that he cried like a fool when she died from 
a karait’s bite. He could understand that too — a 
fellow got as fond of a dog as of a child. He 
thought inconsistently of his own boy in England, 
and wondered how he should feel if his unopened 
letters contained bad news. Then his thoughts 
harked back to Sandhurst — poor old Ally I . . . 

Such stupid, lovable times ! . . . Men make 

tenderer friendships in their young manhood than 
they care to express. 

He was covered with dust — caked with it — and 
streaked with the heat as he dismounted in the sta- 
ble yard of the bungalow. Not the state in which 
to go into a lady’s drawing-room, he thought rue- 
fully, pulling the handkerchief out of his sleeve to 
wipe his shining face ! The hair clung to his damp 
forehead as he slipped off his helmet and dropped 
it with a little clang of the chain, on to the table in 
the hall. Mrs. Lewin was in the further room, Ab- 
dallah said — oh, yes, she was at home to visitors. 
Brissy tried instinctively to muffle his spurs as he 
walked across the bare boards, through the hanging 
curtains, and into her white presence. 


THE RAT-TRAP 


247 


She was sitting by the window, looking out 
through an open door to the hot riot of the hillside, 
where the wind sang in the grasses and came back 
laden with sweetness from the flowering trees, but 
she turned her head sharply at the sound of his 
ringing step (why did those spurs jar so?) and rose 
and met him. The instant he got close to her he 
saw that she knew, though how he did not stop to 
puzzle out, and with the tears running down his 
scorched face he took her hands in his and tried to 
speak. 

“ This is kind of you, Brissy,” she said in a quick, 
low voice, looking up into the eyes she had called 
soulless. The first thing she had realised was that 
he had made the simple self-sacrifice from which 
other men had flinched, and come to tell her as he 
best could, with less self-consciousness than they, 
but suffering far more from a personal feeling. An- 
other of her theories fell from her while he stood 
there holding her hands, and with a bewildered hu- 
miliation she felt that she would never judge any 
one again. For this man of all the Station she had 
always held a little in contempt. 

“ I had a letter by the mail,” she said, quite qui- 
etly and collectedly, but as if a little weary. “ He 
sent it by a runner, just before — he . . . And 

the man got through in time to deliver it and catch 
the mail — almost before any one knew. Mustn’t it 
have been a wonderful journey ? All down through 
the German territory, and by Lake Nyassa into 
Rhodesia, I suppose. But he was a Malagasy — 
Ally’s own servant, Longa — and they are marvellous 
runners. You know Longa means friend in the 
vernacular — strange, isn’t it? ” 

She paused, as if she were thinking, and put her 
hand up to her hair as if a little uncertain that it lay 
in its usual correct masses. He only said brokenly, 


248 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“ Poor old Ally ! — he backed out,” — that seemed to 
trouble Brissy ! — “ I wish I had been there.” 

“ You would never have done it,” — she shook her 
head with a flash of intuition. “ You were stronger 
than he.” She thought a moment, and then went 
on in the same curious fashion. “ Yes, Longa (and 
that means a friend ! ) brought the letter to Cape- 
town, and sent it on to me by the mail. Here it is 
— oh yes ! do look at it ! ” 

She nearly thrust it into his hands, which trem- 
bled as they held it. He almost felt that he ought 
not to look, as his blurred eyes travelled over the 
blotted sheets. 

Poor Ally ! Poor, handsome, unreliable Ally — 
proved incompetent, and such a failure ! 

It was a disconnected letter at best, and nothing 
really but a confession of the man’s shame, which 
had to be pieced together from a knowledge of 
him, for he had made no coherent statement. He 
had fallen in with his own regiment, who were 
camped just outside Port Cecil, and what with the 
reaction in getting out of Key Island, and “ the fel- 
lows ” being glad to welcome him — well, the result 
was the same as it had been when he failed before, and 
the Administrator wanted him on the night of the 
threatened rising. He did not remember very much. 
He was not dead drunk this time — if he had been it 
might have saved him — but after dining with the 
regiment (and God knows what he had said to them, 
only they were decent fellows and would shield him), 
and he had had an important interview with the 
men most involved in the insurrection. It was a 
private interview, and a diplomatic affair that was to 
be kept very dark. Melton Hanney arranged it, he 
had been most decent all through — there was no 
blame attached to him. He had settled with Ally 
as to when the meeting should take place, but had 


THE RAT-TRAP 


249 


not been present at the interview. There was an 
argument — Ally did not remember the details very 
well — only his head was heated, and he got impa- 
tient, and lost his temper and threatened. The men 
saw his condition and drew him on — then he 
bragged of his Government, and their powers ; and 
then — then — all that Gregory had explained to him 
so carefully lest he should make mistakes, was 
blurted out, and the very nation perhaps involved 
by his folly. He knew what he had done almost 
before they left him with smooth, guarded speeches, 
though no hint of animosity, and a kind of sullen 
despair settled down on him. That was three days 
ago, before his letter was written — three days of 
agonising suspense, and time to think over what he 
had done. Nothing was known as yet; he was 
supposed to be communicating with his chiefs, or 
forming an ultimatum. In the meantime he had 
arranged for a shooting excursion inland — and there 
was more truth in it than would appear ! It seemed 
the only thing to do — but he must write the truth 
to Hanney. It was not Hanney’s fault, and it 
might leave him a chance to do something, and 
avert disaster. 

“ He is a thoroughly capable man, and knows the 
whole situation — in my opinion, if that goes for any- 
thing now, he ought to have managed it from the 
first," wrote Alaric Lewin a few hours before death. 

Why did they send me ? You said I could not do 
it — you were right as usual. Tm no good. Chum — 
you always wanted me to do something, but you 
would never have made me. Tm better out of it — 
it’s the least I can do, for I should only disgrace 
you if I lived. You don’t know what I’ve done this 
time — it was a big thing, bigger than you all im- 
agine, and I’ve hashed it. I only trust I shan’t get 
Gregory into the mess with me. It is not his fault 


250 


THE RAT-TRAP 


any more than Hanney’s. The Home Government 
ought to leave it to the man on the spot, or be sure 
who they send. And there have been worse things 
in my life that concern you, that I can’t tell you 
either. They involve others. Only forgive us, and 
believe that I’m doing the best thing possible for 
you now. Good-bye, Chum — and God bless you ! ” 
It was signed with his full name, but the letters 
were more scrawled than usual, and the whole letter 
was blotted and uncertain. The suspicion that hurt 
Brissy more than all was what the trembling hand- 
writing betrayed — the man had been so afraid of 
the thing he was going to do ! He had not wanted 
to die. Only his desperation and the stress of cir- 
cumstances in which he found himself had driven 
him to a last bold action — forced him, morally at 
least, to go down with his back against the wall. 

For the idea of cowardice had faded out of Cap- 
tain Nugent’s mind. He saw from that piteous, 
confused letter of the man who had hardly under- 
stood his own disaster, that whnt might have been 
weakness in himself was a kind of furious bravery in 
Ally. With an unusual stretch of imagination, he 
fancied the beautiful set face, the splendidly-built 
figure in the lonely place in which his friend had 
chosen to die, and heard the crash of the revolver. 
Curiously enough he knew Ally’s revolvers ; they 
were a pair he had given him himself. That they 
should come to such a use as this! • 

Mrs. Lewin had been standing beside him pa- 
tiently while he read the letter. She made no com- 
ment, and asked no question as he handed back 
the sheets, but with a curious new speculation in 
her face she turned upon him suddenly. 

They know — at Government House ? ” 

“Yes, there was a cable, and a letter followed by 
the mail from Beira.” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


251 


When did the cable come ? ” 

Brissy hesitated. “ This morning, I suppose. I 
did not hear.” 

“You are wrong,” she said quietly. “It came 
last night.” 

The conviction was so strong in her mind that it 
seemed to revolutionise her thoughts. Gregory had 
certainly known last night, it accounted for his dis- 
turbed manner and his sudden appearance. But 
why had he not prepared her at least ? Why had 
he thought that when she knew it would prove a 
barrier between them — unless he had expected this 
beforehand, calculated upon it, plotted some such 
solution of the problem that had threatened to keep 
them apart ! The dreadful suspicion was so intoler- 
able that she began to fancy she was going mad. 
She could not think consecutively — she could not 
reason, or judge with mercy. She seemed to have 
lost her power to be charitable, and almost to think 
of him as a deliberate murderer. For the time all 
other feeling was dead in her, stunned with the 
shock, and her one dread was that she might have 
to see him or speak to him. Her last night’s self 
seemed as far removed from herself of to-day as 
though they were two separate beings. She could 
not remember even her love for him ; there seemed 
only the dull pain of it left. 

When Mrs. Gilderoy came in later to see her, she 
found her lying on her own bed in a kind of stu- 
pour; yet the instant she spoke to her Leoline’s 
brain responded, and she answered with perfect 
coherence — it was only her feeling that was numb. 
She had even settled her plans too, and knew what 
she meant to do. 

“ I cannot leave in this mail boat. I must wait 
to see if there are more details to be got, and to ar- 
range things also. There is business to settle here 


252 


THE RAT-TRAP 


that could not be done by to-morrow, and much to 
go into.” 

“ What will you do then? You will not remain 
here ? ” 

“ I shall go to Vohitra as soon as I have packed 
up our things and left this house ready for — for the 
next people. I want you to stay here with me for 
the few days if you will.” 

“ ril go with you to Vohitra too, if my good man 
can spare me. Or if I can’t actually start with you 
(of course you’ll want to get away as soon as ever 
you can) I’ll follow you.” 

“ I shall stay here until the next mail,” said Leo- 
line levelly. “ I have no black clothes of course — 
is there a sewing woman in the town who could 
make me something ? ” 

“ Yes, a very decent little woman too for such a 
place. I will see about that for you. You won’t 
go out, I suppose? ” 

“ No.” 

“ She can come up to you. Oh, I am the bearer 
of a message from Mr. Gregory himself. His sin- 
cere ” 

Don’t ! ” said Leoline sharply. For a moment 
her calm seemed broken through. She put her 
hands over her horror-stricken eyes as if she saw 
something that Mrs. Gilderoy could not see. “ The 
Administrator was the man who appointed Captain 
Lewin to East Africa,” she continued in a low voice. 
“ You can understand how I feel. Of course it is 
unreasonable.” 

“ But natural at the moment. I quite under- 
stand. Under the circumstances you would rather 
not see him?” 

“ He has not asked to see me, surely ! ” 

“ No, but a visit of condolence is almost inevi- 
table. I will see that he does not come. If he 


THE RAT-TRAP 


255 


wants to express his sympathy he can lend you his 
yacht to take you round to Port Albert. That is a 
much more practical and sensible thing to do.” 

But Mrs. Lewin did not answer. She lay with 
closed eyes, not bearing, but enduring, until thought 
was kind to her, and instead of the nightmare of 
her new suspicions, or the recollection of that 
blotted letter, she remembered the revelation of 
Bristow Nugent — poor Brissy, who had come to her 
with the tears running down his face, and whom she 
had always good-humouredly despised as too 
coarsely moulded for fine feeling. Truly, our God 
creates strange and hidden beauties in the vessels 
which He makes of clay. And who shall know His 
mind as to which were fashioned to honour and 
which to dishonour ? . 

* * * 5i« 5i< 

Two days later the mail went out, and carried 
Alfred Halton through the Gates, out of prison back 
to England. Half Port Victoria, still talking of 
“ poor Lewin’s death,” came down to the wharf to 
see him off, and the Administrator came also. 
Hardly a word had passed between the two men on 
the subject in everybody’s mouth beyond what was 
necessary, but before they said good-bye Halton 
expressed an official regret over the gravity of the 
situation in Port Cecil, and his eyes, meeting Greg- 
ory’s, declared war. 

“ I have already stated my opinion that Lewin 
was the wrong man to send,” he said quietly, I 
can only wish you well out of the unfortunate com- 
plication ! ” The small man was turning to bay at 
last. 

The Colonial Office will not hold you respon- 
sible, at any rate,” said Gregory with his insolent 


254 


THE RAT-TRAP 


lidless stare. “ My course of action was entirely 
my own.” 

“ And any disaster that followed.” 

“ Melton Hanney is at Port Cecil,” said Gregory 
with a shrug of his shoulders. “ If one cannot 
trust the man in place one may as well throw up the 
sponge. I do not suppose that Lewin’s indiscretions 
will lead to international trouble, but if they did — it 
means a certain expenditure of men and money,” 
he ended composedly. 

Halton turned his face slowly to the man who 
was his better by just the larger qualities that made 
him without fear, and it was ugly to see. As the 
Administrator put his foot on the gang-plank to 
leave the ship, his fellow in office spoke softly, 
barbed words that were intended for, and reached 
no other ears. 

“ ‘ Some of the King’s servants be dead,’ ” he 
quoted slowly, “ ‘ and thy servant Uriah the Hittite 
is dead also ! ’ ” It was the last that passed between 
them. 


CHAPTER XVII 


He needs a clever counsel who stands at the world’s tribunal.” 
^English Proverb. 

Mrs. Lewin had not seen Diana Churton, save at 
passing moments, for a period of some weeks, but 
she encountered her on the day she started for 
Vohitra. Diana had called in company with other 
women in the Station, during the time following 
Ally’s departure; but Leoline had always looked 
upon her as her husband’s friend, and did not ex- 
pect, or desire, an equal attention to herself. 
Diana’s scanty visits had not impressed her in any 
way, and her own absorption during those drifting, 
golden weeks blinded her usual observation. It 
struck her with a positive shock that Mrs. Churton 
had aged when she came face to face with her in 
the morning sunlight on the quay ; but the knowl- 
edge even then lay dormant in her mind, not to be 
considered upon until some day she might have 
need of it. 

The Administrator had placed his yacht at her 
disposal, and she made use of it in preference to 
the coasting steamer, which otherwise was the only 
means of transport to Port Albert. The yacht was 
a fussy, old-fashioned little steamboat in itself, prone 
to kick in the deep current that washed the east 
coast of the island ; but at least she did not smell 
of oil, and she had passenger accommodation, while 
the coasting steamers had none save the dirty deck, 
which was crowded with fruit and coloured people 
in about equal proportions. Mrs. Lewin accepted 

255 


256 


THE RAT-TRAP 


the hospitality of the Hova^ and found herself the 
only passenger. 

Liscarton came also, to his deep disgust and the 
degradation of his dignity. He had been Captain 
Nugent’s last gift to Leoline, who accepted him 
with a faint smile at the remembrance of Mrs. 
Gilderoy’s comments on the significance of a pony 
in Key’land. Brissy left by the mail that also took 
Halton out of the Rat-trap. He came up to the 
bungalow to say good-bye, and sat looking des- 
perate for twenty minutes, while Mrs. Lewin un- 
consciously made him more unhappy by loving him 
across the room with her speaking eyes. He had 
so often bored her by lingering at her tea-table that 
she felt her reluctance to let him go on this occasion 
a judgment upon her, and was always a little 
ashamed in her after life to remember that she had 
very nearly kissed him. Fortunately for his peace 
of mind, Captain Bristow Nugent thought his 
chance of heaven no more remote than such a 
privilege. 

It was in turning round to watch Liscarton’s 
vagaries in embarking that Leoline Lewin saw an- 
other pony being led off by a groom, and a dust- 
coloured habit that she knew advancing on her. 
Beneath the white helmet Diana’s face seemed to 
have fallen in and grown pinched ; her hard-burnt 
colour had faded somewhat, and her eyes were the 
eyes of an uncertain beast — some wild thing in 
captivity that awaits a chance to bite its keeper 
through, all its habit of obedience. Her loud voice 
was alone unchanged. It greeted Mrs. Lewin with 
the same bluff comradeship she adopted in her 
feminine friendships. 

“ So you’re off to Vohitra ! Best thing you could 
do. I wish I could get up there too.” 

I hoped you might come up later, perhaps,” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


257 


said Mrs. Lewin as they shook hands. It struck 
her as hopelessly indecent that she should stand 
here on the quay chatting after Key ’land fashion, 
when she had only had news of her husband’s death 
about a week since. But the conventionalities of 
tradition seemed squeezed out by the narrow limits 
of life in the tiny Station. For a day or so she 
might shut herself out from public view behind 
drawn shutters, but the instant she appeared in the 
open air an encounter was unavoidable ; and why 
should she turn her back upon friends because her 
husband was dead? she thought blankly. After 
all, life had to go on. She was dully surprised to 
find herself talking much the same as usual, of the 
narrow round of intimacy, of the people she knew, 
of monotonous, local interests. “ Mrs. Gilderoy 
joins me on Thursday,” she found herself saying, 
as if it were an ordinary summer outing. “ Won’t 
you come too ? ” 

Can’t, unfortunately. Bute came back this 
week.” 

“ He has been for quite a long shoot, hasn’t he ? 
Ah, he rode round the island — I forgot.” Again 
Mrs. Gilderoy occurred to her mind, and a dull 
speculation crossed it as to whether she were right, 
and Diana’s face bore testimony to a domestic 
tragedy. 

“Yes, he wanted a change,” Mrs. Churton said 
naturally, and in so composed a manner it dispelled 
the idea of anything being wrong. “ He was 
awfully seedy before he went. This place doesn’t 
suit him. But it doesn’t suit any one long. How 
are you ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” said Leoline simply. “ What 
does it matter ? One just goes on living. Tell me 
the news of the place.” 

“ There is none. The Clayton woman has taken 


258 


THE RAT-TRAP 


a religious craze, Rennie tells me. He can’t stand 
her any longer, so he’ll probably revert to Trixie ; 
Denver. There’s nothing else to amuse him until ! 
he gets transferred. You go home next mail, I 1 

suppose ? How I envy you ! ” She drew a long I 

rasping breath that seemed to hurt her. 

“ I would have been contented to stop here if I 
could have kept as I was,” said Mrs. Lewin bitterly, 
for the shock that her life had sustained had driven 
her back on a former mental attitude. She felt at 
the moment that if she could wipe out the horror 
of her suspicion about Gregory, she would be con- 
tent to live out her life with Alaric Lewin and all 
his weakness and failure. She glanced down at her ; 
long slim figure in its new black, and Mrs. Churton’s < 
eyes followed her own. ' 

Mourning is awfully hot,” she said simply. 1 
“ You can wear white if you like at Vohitra — there ' 

will be no one to see, I don’t see that it matters — 
when one feels much, clothes seem so insignificant 
a proof, don’t they ? ” Her sharpened face took a j 
strained hurt look that made it pathetic. i 

“ Oh, what do I care ! ” said Chum, impatient of j 
her own pain and remorse, missing all hint of the } 
others. “ One cannot lose one’s instincts of course, I 
but I would wear sackcloth — with a cut,” she added j 
honestly. ! 

They parted there on the quay, unconscious of r 
the bitterness in each other’s hearts, Diana to go j 
back to the house that held a grim tragedy for her * 
in her husband’s face — Leoline to take ship and flee | 
from herself, if such a miracle had been permitted. .j 
She could not get away, any more than Bute ? 
Churton and his wife could get away from the ^ 
degradation of that every-day life in which he had j 
always a memory to shame him, she one that had * 
driven the iron into her soul. She had never given 


THE RAT-TRAP 


259 


him a chance to ask her pardon. It was the one 
revenge left her, for she knew that he could not rest 
in the sense of his own lost self-esteem. He was 
trying to speak of it, and she would not let him. 
Sometimes she watched the big man moving about 
uneasily, with hard brown eyes that hated him, and 
knew that his mind was troubled, until she would 
have liked to have mocked him. She grew cruel in 
those days, for the grinding intimacy of their nar- 
row life prevented either of them gaining a long 
enough respite to think, and learn patience apart. 
Truly Key Island was a trap ! 

It looked so in reality to Mrs. Lewin from the 
deck of the yacht, as she was carried out of har- 
bour. Once more her eyes rested on the green 
circle of Maitso and Mitsinjovy cuddling the bay. 
She looked back at the little palm-ridden place, 
and the ravenalas lifted solemn hands in blessing 
on the shore even as she passed through the gates 
and out to the open channel. For a minute Leoline 
breathed more freely as the heat of the harbour 
was replaced by a warm sea wind, but she had not 
got rid of Key Island even yet. The yacht hugged 
the coast, and the lovely shore was flashed on her 
line of vision as she lay in her deck-chair and looked 
idly at her surroundings. Maitso Hill faded round a 
point, and the deep water enabled them to pass 
closely to the warm green slopes that seemed to 
hang right down over the water. Some way inland, 
among the desolate native villages of the Company’s 
day, a brotherhood of priests had settled themselves, 
with the fervour of their Order for conversion of 
the hopelessly intermingled black races. The Domi- 
cile was not visible from the coast, but with a very 
lovely expression of their religion they had set up 
here and there a white cross in the dense green 
vegetation. They did not mark either grave or 


26 o 


THE RAT-TRAP 


shrine — they were simply placed there for the love 
of the symbol, and the sudden pure white thing up- 
lifting its pathetic memory against the riotous growth 
of the cliff, brought the relief of unhoped-for tears 
to Leoline’s eyes. There seemed something infi- 
nitely gracious in this memory of God set up for 
chance passers-by — a gleaming, plain white cross, 
standing out in strong relief against the wild green, 
clinging as it were to the very edge of the land, 
above the sea. For so the priests of Notre Seigneur 
have set them up on the East coast of Key Island, 
like a beacon. 

By and by the yacht passed a point of land where 
the Captain pointed out an old battered gun, still 
thrusting up a helpless muzzle through the guava 
and logwood which had triumphantly woven it a 
grave. He gave Mrs. Lewin a telescope to make it 
out, and she wished she had not looked — its futile 
mouth, agape through the green, seemed like a dis- 
carded servant whom man had ungratefully forgotten 
and left to rot among the forces of Nature. 

“ In the time of the Company they fortified all 
this coast, because of the French cruisers,” said the 
Captain, in explanation. “ You will find all the 
Madagascan side of the island ready to fight — but 
we expect peace from our African neighbours.” 

“ Besides, the sand-banks are a safeguard against 
any enemy,” said Mrs. Lewin dryly. “ And Africa 
Point is hardly the kind of coast on which to effect 
a landing ! What is the name of this Point where 
the poor old gun stands ? ” 

“ Tifiro — it means, briefly, shoot! Not that they 
could have done much execution with that old 
thing. It’s about as much use as the guns that the 
Government give to our Volunteers at home ! The 
Company themselves removed their fortifications to 
Port Albert during the last few years of their reign 


THE RAT-TRAP 


261 

in Key Island, and since it became a Government 
affair they have been added to and improved.” 

Another long luxuriance of coast brought them 
into harbour again ; but the little town of Port Al- 
bert looked a mere village after the important coal- 
ing-station of Port Victoria, and the vaunted fortifi- 
cations seemed in a very unfinished condition. There 
was a landing-jetty, but more for the convenience of 
shipping the sugar than for the accommodation of 
passengers or general cargo. It looked like a native 
settlement at first sight, all the huts raised on their 
four little feet above the ground, and the cluster of 
thatched roofs suggesting China Town over again. 
As it happened, Leoline had never been to Port 
Albert before, and had imagined it a much larger 
place. She stood forlornly among her baggage as 
it was placed on the jetty, the servants who had ac- 
companied her huddling round with the thrust-out 
lower lip of native disapproval. 

The Administrator's yacht had attracted some 
attention, and a staring group of coloured people 
were pushed aside by a tall burnt man in the uni- 
versal riding-breeches and linen coat, who came 
forward and lifted a broad hat to Mrs. Lewin. 

“ I am Mr. Ambroise, the Town Warden,” he ex- 
plained in the pleasant free manner that men gain 
in such small corners of the Empire, where they feel 
their nation all one big family. “ Mr. Gregory sent 
me word that a lady would put up at my house for 
a night on the way up to Vohitra. Are you Mrs. 
Lewin ? ” 

“ Yes. But I don't like to trouble you to turn out ! ” 
Oh, it's all right. I always go to the hotel 
when any one comes up, and leave them my place. 
Mosquitoes don't hurt me for the night, you see, 
and the hotel is — well, rather impossible for ladies ! ” 

“ I know, IVe tried the Natale ! ” 


262 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“ At Port Victoria ? It’s a palace compared to 
this, I assure you ! ” He laughed his pleasant, un- 
restrained laugh, as if his lungs had never been 
cramped. Then, glancing at her black gown, the 
eyes under the broad hat grew graver and a little 
pitiful. Mrs. Lewin looked unintentionally girlish 
and appealing in the simplicity of the clothes which 
were all that the native dressmaker could accom- 
plish. But because she was herself it seemed bound 
to fit her, and the beauty of her figure was quite as 
obvious under their plain folds as in her more elabo- 
rate gowns. Mr. Ambroise thought with honest 
sympathy of the poor fellow who had made such a 
hash of things in East Africa, and looked into Mrs. 
Lewin’s eyes with a little sense of awe. Like every 
one else, he could never tell their exact colour ; he 
only knew that they were most wonderful, and held 
a tragedy. 

“ Is this all your baggage — and your servants ? ” 
he said, looking round him at her property, which 
seemed to her rather overwhelming on the ele- 
mentary jetty. “ Everything you have ? ” 

“ Except my pony. They are disembarking him 
now — with some difficulty,” said Leoline drily. 

Liscarton had a character of his own, and was 
showing it. He might have been a member of 
Parliament in some former state of existence from 
his tendency to argue. When he had done his best 
to demolish the jetty with his hoofs, and had scat- 
tered the crowd to the safety of the beach, he con- 
sented to walk quietly into the little town, his ears 
laid back among his ragged mane, and the whites of 
his eyes showing wickedly. 

“ I have no cart, and it is only half-a-mile — will 
you walk ? ” said Ambroise simply. You won’t 
get on that brute, will you ? ” 

“ I think he would behave better if I rode him,” 


THE RAT-TRAP 263 

said Mrs. Lewin. ** It does not matter about a 
habit — I can ride in this skirt.” 

It seemed to her a strange procession through 
the dirty little streets — herself mounted, by gracious 
permission of Liscarton, Ambroise walking at the 
pony’s shoulder, the servants behind, and half-a- 
dozen natives following with the boxes. The men 
here she noticed, with the knowledge gained in six 
months, were more Malagasy than Negro — a much 
finer race, brown-skinned and blue-eyed, with flat- 
tened slender limbs and features, which had the 
pensive dignity of the Hindoo. Ambroise’s serv- 
ants were of the same tribe, from Anossi, and 
waited on her that night with strange words that 
she did not recognise, even from the Patois — Ino 7 ia 
izao ? for What do you wish ? and Salama for 
greeting. The night was intensely hot — far hotter 
than any she had spent in the bungalow — and she 
was not sorry to rise at four next morning to ride 
out to Vohitra. At all events it was in the hills, 
and would be cooler than this low-lying, crowded 
little town. 

“ I sent up some supplies,” Ambroise said, as he 
marshalled the little procession, and mounted his 
own pony — he was going to ride out with them 
some way, and show them the road — “ and my but- 
ler is up there waiting for you. I hope you’ll find 
everything in order. I have sent plenty of tinned 
things, as it’s difficult to get them out sometimes, 
and you might run short.” 

“ It is most kind of you to take all this trouble. 
Mrs. Gilderoy did not warn me that I should be so 
helpless on other people’s bounty.” 

“ She took it all for granted, most likely. They 
always stay with me when they go out to Vohitra, 
and I send up and open the place for them before- 
hand.” 


264 


THE RAT-TRAP 


“ You know the Gilderoys ? ” 

Oh yes. She’s a clever woman. He’s rather 
too caustic for my taste. It’s like an overdose of 
quinine to talk to him for long ! ” 

“ Do you often have visitors ? ” 

“ Only during the summer as a rule. But it’s 
always summer, more or less, isn’t it? The tem- 
perature does not alter much. My most frequent 
guest is Mr. Gregory. He is round about once a 
fortnight, and since he has been Administrator the 
accommodation has had to be looked to, owing to 
his fashion of visiting every part of his little domain 
at a minute’s notice. Not that he would mind if 
one gave him a Karross and the bare ground ; but 
his unexpected appearances have had a salutary 
effect on the police stations, at which one generally 
has to stay in a native village.” 

Leoline was silent, while a sudden fear gripped 
her heart. Even here she was not safe from him, it 
seemed. She had come away from Port Victoria 
with some idea of leaving it all behind her — the 
horror and the pain; she had forgotten his con- 
stant visits to Port Albert as well as China Town, 
and the native settlements on the Tableland. 
She felt the confinement of the island again, 
which, for a time, she had lost in the distraction 
of seeing its further extent. It was no less a trap 
because the rats ran round it in their desire to 
escape. 

After a time they left Port Albert behind them, 
and were out in the Tsara Valley — the great centre 
of the sugar-growing industry in Key Island. They 
were leaving the river, and crossing the wide fields 
to their right, the ponies going single file to keep 
the narrow paths which were all the greedy Planters 
allowed through their rich plantations, save the lines 
of rail for the trucks. As the valley opened before 


THE RAT-TRAP 


265 


them, Leoline felt blinded by the cane. It spread 
on all sides, a sheet of liquid sunshine, from the bed 
of the Volofatsy River, which cut it in two, up even 
to the hillsides, clear gold-green, waving with every 
breath of wind that crossed it, a sight to see once 
and remember always. The valley was clothed 
with it, and the dark sides of the mountains, that 
shot up out of its reach, seemed only to throw it 
into greater prominence. 

“ It’s a fine crop,” Ambroise said, drawing rein 
and looking round him. “ And nearly ripe. You’ll 
see the sugar industry in its glory, Mrs. Lewin. 
They will begin cutting next week.” 

Where is the factory ? ” 

“ Behind us, but the other side of the river. I 
must say good-bye to you here. There’s your road, 
that track up the mountain side. Good-bye ! 
Please send out to me if you want anything.” 

He rode off in the increasing day, and Leoline 
went on her lonely way, the coloured people closing 
in behind her. She could not miss her road for 
there was but one, though it wound in and out what 
looked like unbroken forest from the valley. High 
up on the hillside hung Vohitra, a long building 
with the inevitable stoep and an old tiled roof It 
looked nothing but a toy thing, like a Swiss chMet, 
against the massed woods of the mountain crest, but 
below it in the hollow the vegetation was less 
severe. There was a grove of bananas tossed down 
the very slope where the house rested, and below 
this again the plaintive tone of bamboo — not the 
insistent liquid sunshine of the cane that filled the 
valley, but the hesitating green that is pale and 
golden and infinitely soft by reason of the feathery 
mass of its foliage. Down the heart of the valley 
came the river, a shallow stream that sang loudly to 
the silent listening heavens and the kites, for there 


266 


THE RAT-TRAP 


seemed no one else to hear. Even Voliitra, with its 
hint of humanity, was infinitely lonely. 

Breakfast was laid for her on the stoep, and Am- 
broise’s butler, a tall comely Malagasy, bowed low 
before her with the murmured “ Salama ! ” and asked 
her pleasure before he left the hill and returned to 
Port Albert. She looked at his picturesque figure 
in its deeply fringed lamba — the Malagasy at Port 
Victoria had in general discarded the native dress — 
and wished that she might have kept him in prefer- 
ence to Hafez, already grumbling among the cala- 
bashes. But she had no orders to give, save a pa- 
thetic request for a bath, and that, she learned, 
already awaited her. 

She ate her breakfast in sight of the cane, which 
was beginning to assert its old influence upon her. 
There are two crops in Key Island ; the one she had 
seen cut and crushed in Mr. Denver’s factory was 
the lesser yield, but the Tsara Valley was now in its 
full glory. Her eyes strayed down the hillside to 
the rich harvest in the valley again and again, with 
a kind of fascination. It soothed her in some 
strange fashion to see the clear colour that always 
suggested spring and new life, and hope, even 
though the season was really autumn. Tsara — 
spring o’ the year ! The very name seemed to 
breathe the pure green of ripened sap, the rejuve- 
nescence of Nature. The shock and jar of sudden 
death had come so near her of late, that she felt as 
if it had dinned her senses ; now it hummed off into 
distance again, and life closed peacefully round her, 
leaving her time to think. . . . 

She sauntered through the house after a while, 
and looked at the long rows of closed doors, for the 
bungalow was a large one and built to accommodate 
many visitors, being in a sense a government hotel 
for the use of sorely-tried ofiflcials. The rooms 


THE RAT-TRAP 


267 

were like loose boxes, and not much larger, but the 
heat was far less oppressive than in the lower por- 
tions of the island, and when the doors were fast- 
ened back the cool breeze that blew straight through 
the house, down the long corridor, made them bear- 
able even at night. Mrs. Lewin’s room was exactly 
like all the others, save that it possessed a key, which 
she had sternly demanded of Ambroise’s butler. 
None of the other doors appeared to have any fast- 
ening beyond a rickety handle. 

PTom the house itself she found the stable, and 
Liscarton, who received her with distrust as one 
who had lured him into the wilderness. Nor would 
he accept the sugar she offered, which for a pony 
who was always hungry was a proof of great of- 
feiice. But sometimes he would sulk for days if his 
temper were upset. She pulled his head down in 
spite of his resentful manner, and kissed the white 
blaze between his wild eyes and the rough fringe on 
his forehead. Neither his mane nor tail had been 
cut, for he had never played polo, and it gave him 
an untamed appearance in contrast to other ponies. 
Mrs. Lewin hid the sugar in his manger in case he 
should change his mind, and went in search of the 
bath-room. 

She discovered it at the end of a steep path which 
took her a hundred yards down the hillside. It was 
nothing but a rough wooden shed, with a zinc roof 
that did not touch the further wall by some inches. 
As Mrs. Lewin undressed she looked up and saw a 
slit of azure sky and the crowned head of a cocoa- 
nut palm that kept watch above her, but the palm 
had no appreciative eyes for a new version of Eve. 
The floor was just warm mother earth, for it had 
neither been flagged nor matted, and the bath itself 
was a deep zinc tub with a foot of dubious water in 
it. Leoline balanced daintily on the piece of board 


268 


THE RAT-TRAP 


which was all the carpeting allowed to save her from 
the gritty ground, and observed that the other fur- 
niture of the place consisted of an old cigarette-tin 
nailed to the wall for a soap dish, and a wooden peg 
on which the towels hung. It was not luxurious, 
but any means of washing is respected in Key Is- 
land, and she had learned humility in this respect. 
By the time she sauntered back to the bungalow it 
was nine o’clock, and the broad heat had begun. 

One day was very like another at Vohitra; it 
seemed as if the hours had melted into each other, 
and the solitude and rest were healing her nature 
from the wrench it had sustained. She could think 
now, and face her own evolution. She did not read 
much, though she had brought a box of books with 
her. Curiously enough, it was none of these, but a 
little broken-backed Rubaiyat that she found on a 
dusty shelf at Vohitra that was her closest compan- 
ion when she desired a book at all. It had proba- 
bly been left behind by a former visitor, and it opened 
so invariably at one stanza that she never seemed to 
get any further — 

“ Some for the riches of the world, and some 
Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come ; 

Ah, take the cash, and let the credit go ! 

Nor heed the rolling of a distant drum.” 

The volume used to lie open in her lap at this ’ 
verse, while she looked so long at the cane, and 
thought of Gregory. 

She could bear to think of him now, even though 
with a consciousness of her own responsibility she 
recognised that her intuitive fear had not been one 
to argue away — he had foreseen and looked for 
some such removing of the barrier between them, 
as had actually occurred. If she could, she would 
have screened him with the impression she had first 
had of his motive in appointing Alaric to the dif- 


THE RAT-TRAP 


269 


ficulty and danger of East Africa ; she had thought 
that his words had a literal meaning when he said 
that he could not part from her, and that he had 
sent her husband away to indulge the momentary 
impulse, perhaps even to come to an understanding 
between them, and woo and win her. Anyhow, she 
had looked at it as an indefinite move, a respite from 
Ally’s presence — no more. That would have been 
a woman’s way — her own way, perhaps, but not Greg- 
ory’s. The strong man looked further ahead, he 
had no motiveless actions. There was a darker ob- 
ject in Captain Lewin’s appointment than a mere 
desire to be rid of him at the moment. 

She seemed to have discovered this without effort 
on her part, as soon as she realised that he had 
known of Alaric’s death the night before it was 
made public. He had been afraid of losing her — 
his own consciousness told him that he might, if she 
knew. Had he been innocent of this blood, the 
fear would not have struck him at all. She never 
masked the situation to herself any more, once she 
had faced it ; this man that she loved had no scru- 
ples, he struck at what stood in his path, though it 
might be human life, and his career was a proof of 
such fearless murder. Well, the kings of the earth 
have succeeded so. But the marvel to her was that 
this knowledge of him had not killed her love. It 
had been numbed with the blow of her discovery 
of his pitfall for the man who stood in his way ; 
but as the first horror passed off, as the mental life 
flowed back to her in the solitude of Vohitra, she 
realised that her heart had only been paralysed — the 
pain of returning feeling proved it alive through its 
very wounds. The last of her theories fell before 
the very anguish that cried out for him, the yearning 
of all her womanhood to his master touch. She 
had thought that she could not love save at a certain 


THE RAT-TRAP 


270 

standard ; Evelyn Gregory could only reach that 
standard in one particular, that of ruthless strength, 
but the knowledge of his shortcomings, though it 
might appal her, did not make him one whit less 
dear to her. 

The very pain of it seemed to have developed her 
into something alien, a character not her own. She 
had been so sure she knew herself, that the revela- 
tion of that in her which could overthrow her the- 
ories made her more patient and anxious to learn 1 

of her own fundamental nature. It was a new edu- i 

cation, for she proved what is true of women in all | 

ages — that love teaches them a sorrow so deep that i 

they hide it in their secret consciousness, and swear ^ 

they are happy. They never are happy, from the I 

days of Eve and Adam until now ; yet the woman I 

does not exist, and never did exist, who, having been f 

in love, would part with the experience. She would p 

often willingly part with her after-memory of the i 

man, and her disillusion ; but with her own private * 

emotions, and the glow and glory of which he was I 

only the trivial cause, she would not part if God 1 

tried the experiment of offering her a miracle and t 

showed her her past undone. :? 

The few days of solitude before Mrs. Gilderoy | 

joined her were invaluable to Leoline Lewin, for ^ 

they gave her some sort of a real insight into her- , 

self. By the time Mrs. Gilderoy climbed the hill on 
her pony, bringing a breath of the stale life of Port 
Victoria with her, Mrs. Lewin could listen and pay 
a courteous attention without moral dislocation. 

Mrs. Gilderoy was both kind and shrewd ; but the 
habit of many years will not be held in check by ^ 
dormant good qualities, and she had used her quick ^ 
wits on the social world around her until a smart J 
saying became her second nature. It was irresisti- 
ble to her to score off people, however much she \ 


THE RAT-TRAP 


271 

might like them, and sometimes the talent even sur- 
prised her into a lie. 

Is Major Churton back yet ? ” Leoline asked, as 
they sat at their first dinner together. “ I saw Di- 
ana the day I left. She told me he was coming.” 

“ He looks a good deal browner and older. I 
encountered him at the Denvers’, lifting Trixie in and 
out of the hammock which she hangs up with that 
end in view. Some man has always got her in his 
arms. She likes them to paw her ! Bute Churton 
goes there far too much.” 

“ Di told me that Mrs. Clayton had taken to re- 
ligion — has Miss Denver tasted conversion also ? ” 

“ No, but it’s true about Eva Clayton. She talks 
about God as if He were an intimate acquaintance 
whose views she could always command on the tel- 
ephone. And of course they always coincide With 
her own conduct ! Wray wants to ask her if the 
Deity approves of ladies smoking ! He hates her 
cigarettes, does my good man.” 

“ God has come into fashion,” said Mrs. Lewin 
rather bitterly. “ At one time we kept our knowl- 
edge of Him to ourselves, as if ashamed of it, ex- 
cept in church, but now it is quite chic to drag Him 
into daily life. One almost gives His name as a ref- 
erence — with one’s banker’s ! ” 

Yes, and so even the name has become cheap- 
ened.” 

“ It is inconsistent of me perhaps,” Mrs. Lewin 
confessed, “ but I would rather hear a man use it as 
an oath and blaspheme that Name, than a woman 
turn it to account and use it for effect, even though 
half unconsciously.” 

It is after all the worse blasphemy — and so 
common now-a-days. Sentimental people always 
fall back upon God as an excuse for their own self- 
indulgence.” 


2/2 


THE RAT-TRAP 


Mrs. Lewin thought of the one sin that shall not 
be forgiven — the sin against the Holy Ghost, which 
is the sin of the spirit and worse than the sin of the 
letter. But she did not say so, being possessed of 
the grace of silence. 

“ The result of Eva’s hypocrisy, however, has not 
been exactly satisfactory, from her point of view,” 
laughed Mrs. Gilderoy. The Rennie boy has de- 
fected, and now wanders about looking for a new 
pitfall. He wants to come out and see us, by the 
way. Is it too soon ? Would you mind ? ” 

“ I do not mind,” said Mrs. Lewin slowly, “ in the 
sense of its being too soon after my husband’s death. 
There is no real sooner or later in these things — it 
is merely a decent custom of civilisation which 
makes us pull down the blinds, and pretend to the 
world that we are weeping. Every one knows in 
their own minds that one cannot weep for more than 
a few hours at most. Why should I mind seeing vis- 
itors ? Particularly in such a community as this ! 
But I wish, if any one must come out, that it had 
been Mr. Gurney. Simply because I should like to 
hear him sing.” 

“Yes, he is always a voice with a man tacked on. 
Unfortunately he can’t realise it though,” said Mrs. 
Gilderoy drily. “ If you asked him to come he 
would tell the whole Station. I think the Rennie 
boy is really safer. Chum.” 

Mrs. Lewin assented absently, and Mr. Rennie 
arrived in due course, and became an unconscious 
factor in spinning the web of her fate. She had 
made an effort in raising no objection to his pres- 
ence, partly on Mrs. Gilderoy’s account, for though 
that lady was good-natured enough to come out to 
Vohitra without the stimulant of a larger party, it 
must, as Leoline knew, be both dull and monoto- 
nous to her. The reward of her virtue was a new 


THE RAT-TRAP 


273 


revelation in the diagnosis she was making of her 
own self, and the touchstone nothing but the light 
words of a boy. 

Mr. Rennie stayed some days at Vohitra, sitting 
figuratively and sometimes literally at the feet of 
both ladies. He was shy of grief, and at first looked 
with distrust at Leoline’s black-gowned figure. 
But her composed manner reassured while it puz- 
zled him. The women with whom he had been 
best acquainted had been of a type that hysterically 
wails its sorrows in the market-place, and is consol- 
able the week after. But Mrs. Lewin was even 
capable of smiling at a small joke, though the 
flowerful softness of her face had a new gravity that 
seemed to have touched it with a shadow. Chum’s 
eyebrows were always a little suggestive of tragedy, 
from a curve belied by her smiling eyes ; but Ren- 
nie saw, vaguely, that the face he admired had 
gained something — a greater womanhood perhaps, 
almost the strength of maternity. Not having the 
key he put it down to Alaric Lewin’s sudden death, 
but he did not think that she would be easily con- 
soled. Lewin, poor fellow, had been of a type which 
Rennie could conscientiously admire. His good 
looks, coupled with a certain air of breeding about 
him, made him a model for younger men ; and to 
play polo and tennis as Ally did by nature was at- 
tainment enough for military ambition. Ally, as a 
married man, almost made bachelorhood look puny, 
for the tie had never interfered with his attractive- 
ness to the opposite sex. Rennie would have been 
a married man on such terms. No wonder that 
Mrs. Lewin’s grief for this hero went deeper than a 
pocket-handkerchief. 

He was sitting on a stool — but not of repentance 
— at her feet, on the evening before his departure. 
The stoep was their usual sitting-room, and they 


274 


THE RAT-TRAP 


had gathered there after dinner for desultory chat, 
Mrs. Gilderoy swinging her small compact body in 
the paintless remains of a rocking-chair, Mrs. Lewin 
leaning back against as many cushions as Rennie 
could find for her basket-work lounge, Rennie him- 
self with his back to one of the pillars of the stoep, 
and his hands clasped round his knees. He had rid- 
den down into the valley that afternoon with Mrs. 
Lewin to see the sugar factory, and while becoming a 
little heady with the changing colours of her eyes, he 
did not know that the smell of the rich sugar brought 
back the day she went over Denver’s, and that a 
ghost walked by her in his place and pointed out all 
the transformations of the cane to her, from the 
crushing and ejection of the waste for fuel, to the 
last refinement and glittering heaps waiting to be 
bagged. The dark, luscious-smelling place was a 
dream of sugar, but the two who wandered about 
among its thunderous machinery were thinking of 
an alien sweetness. 

“ I must write a note to my good man for you to 
take back with you,” Mrs. Gilderoy remarked after 
a time, and she went into the bungalow to do it. 
Mrs. Lewin and Rennie sat silent. She did not no- 
tice that he was plaiting a frill of her gown between 
his confident fingers ; his presence was as little to 
her as the fireflies and lamp -beetles starring the 
grass, for she was thinking of Ally. It was one of 
her hours of remorse when an intolerable sense of 
responsibility for the ceasing of his strong young 
vitality bowed her with irresistible force. At such 
moments she would have sacrificed all her after life 
to his memory, and done penance because she felt 
herself the indirect cause of a fate she could not 
foresee. When she was less morbid she saw that 
even a strong woman cannot stand between a weak 
man and the consequence of his own actions, but 


THE RAT-TRAP 


275 


her torturing conscience accused her of complicity 
with Gregory because for the space of some weeks 
she had allowed herself to be happy. At such mo- 
ments she did not plead innocence of any partici- 
pation in his darker plans ; she felt that to expiate 
her own sin she must sacrifice both herself and him 
for all the years of strong life that lay before them. 

I wish I knew you better, Mrs. Lewin,” Rennie 
said suddenly. 

“ Why ? ” she asked, coming back to the present 
with a start. She looked down at his young good 
looks and audacious eyes, and realised that he had 
been playing with her gown, which she quietly 
drew away. 

“ I should so like to call you by your Christian 
name,” said Rennie, with the happy safety of his 
youth. Women never snubbed him very severely, 
because the flushed colour of his face suggested the 
school-boy still. 

Leoline smiled a little whimsically. “ That is the 
disadvantage of going by a general nickname,” she 
said good-naturedly, supposing that the compro- 
mising Chum ” on so many lips had tempted him. 

“ Oh, I don’t mean your nickname,” he said 
somewhat loftily. “ Every one uses that — all the 
women, at least. They have made it common. 
But I envy Gurney when he sings that song about 
you.” He began to hum ** Leoline.” 

“ We sang our songs together till the stars shook in the skies — 

We spoke — we spoke of common things, but the tears were in 
our eyes. 

And my hand I know it trembled to each light, warm touch of 
thine — 

Yet we are friends, and only friends, my lost love Leoline.” 

** I always think it is a little high-flown for every 
day,” said Mrs. Lewin, with a view to the salutary 
effect of being matter-of-fact. A big, white moon 


2/6 


THE RAT-TRAP 


was shining down the valley and silvering the sweep 
of cane, and the fireflies and intoxicating scents 
made sentiment a little excusable. 

“ I shouldn’t call you Leoline,” said Rennie, with 
a conscious sense of his own cleverness in distinc- 
tion. “ I should shorten it for every day, as you 
say. I like Leo better. No one calls you Leo.” 

She rose abruptly, with a movement of protest 
beyond the power of control, and w'alked to the 
further end of the stoep, remarking, “ I am sorry 
that I do not feel inclined to accord the privilege.” 

Just a boy’s light words ! Yet she remembered 
with a rush of pain how, long since, Mrs. Churton 
had asked leave to call her Chum, and she had said 
yes, and Mrs. Gilderoy had apologised for using her 
husband’s name for her. She had not cared — 
“ Every one calls me Chum ! ” she had said lightly, 
and the name had grown, as Rennie said, common. 
Yet the sound of that natural contraction of Leo- 
line on other lips than Gregory’s had aroused all the 
tigress in her to defend a sacred right. It was 
Gregory’s name for her — one, curiously enough, 
that no one else had ever used, even in her home- 
life before her marriage. As Rennie said, “No one 
calls you Leo ” — no one, that is, before a prying 
public. In the sanctity of their closer love it had 
been the dearest of sounds to her, the little tender 
name that his suppressed voice had made a mere 
whisper for her ears alone. 

She leaned there, at the end of the stoep, looking 
out into the blaze of the moonlight which greyed 
the wooded mountains, and made the cane a magic 
harvest for fairies to reap. She longed at this mo- 
ment for some one to confide her doubts to, and the 
tumult in her mind, and curiously enough her 
thoughts turned to Mrs. Ritchie Stern, the compara- 
tive stranger with the sea-winds haunting her blue 


THE RAT-TRAP 


277 

eyes — the wife who loved her husband, and had 
spoken of children to a childless woman. 

Some pulse seemed to beat and burn in Leoline’s 
bosom. Her heart turned to water in her, and all 
her life demanded the man she had been schooling 
herself to renounce — demanded not only him, but 
to be completed in him, bound by the strong tie of 
the flesh that earth at least can give, be the com- 
munion of saints what it may in Heaven. 

The most pitiful and natural outcry ever put into 
a woman’s mouth, was that despairing “ I loved him 
— and I did not bear his child ! ” It is very inde- 
cent, because no woman who is not indemnified by 
law and the Church has any right to feel the life 
quicken in her veins for any man, no matter how 
much her mate by instinct and suitability. She 
may, however, ask God’s blessing on a loveless 
union, and know that she lies through every vow 
she makes, and then — the joys of the flesh are no 
more lust ! Without a legal right love itself is a 
sin, but the woman who is so forgetful of conven- 
tion that she can yearn for the natural outcome of 
childbirth is pilloried in every moral market-place 
of the world. It seems a pity that, since we have 
accepted the decalogue, nature must always be im- 
moral ; but looked at in one sense even the mar- 
riage service is only sanctifying a breach of divine 
commandment. Leoline Lewin was traditional 
enough to feel her modesty damaged by her own 
unruly pulses. There was an accusation in every 
memory of Gregory’s clasp, and yet she could not con- 
scientiously confess herself repentant, or say in truth 
that she would undo one moment of that too-keeii 
pleasure. She looked up blankly at the inscrutable 
heavens, serenely blue and out of reach of question. 

“ How can one repent for being perfectly happy ? ” 
she said. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


“ He who will not have peace, God sends him war .” — English 
Proverb. 

The Administrator stepped out of the writing- 
room quickly, through the ever-open window, 
tripped, and nearly fell headlong on the stoep. He 
looked down, as he caught the vine-clad pillar, to 
see what had nearly wrought his destruction. A 
man, a half-caste, lay huddled at his feet, in an 
attitude so like death that a stranger would have 
been deceived. Evelyn Gregory had seen that 
death-sleep before ; he bent down closely, pushed 
the man over with his foot, and sniffed the heavy 
breath that came every thirty seconds or so through 
the open mouth. Then he stood up again, erect, at 
his full six feet three inches, and looked across the 
gardens of Government House, that seemed to drift 
away into glades of fainter and fainter colour, until 
it was only a green glow. His active eyes may 
have seen the vegetation, but they certainly saw 
something else — a picture inside his head rather 
than outside. After a second he raised his voice 
and called. 

Two Arabs answered the Administrator’s sum- 
mons, on the principle that Saadat el basha (his Ex- 
cellency) usually demanded strenuous tasks too heavy 
for one man. Gregory looked with steady, lidless 
eyes from them to the apparently lifeless body, and 
pointed to it with a curt gesture. 

“ Take that away,” he said in his horribly under- 
breathed voice, and lay him somewhere to recover. 

278 


THE RAT-TRAP 


279 

He is not dead — he has been smoking ganja." He 
paused, looked down at the helpless body, and 
added three words whose bestial insult they could 
understand — “ Ya ibn kelb!'' (This is not even 
Malagasy — it is Arabic, and it conveys that your 
parentage was not all it might be with advantage 
to yourself.) 

The Arabs lifted the half-caste native, and carried 
him away out of range of Gregory’s savage eyes. 
He was a sais in their phrase — a Zanzalaky or 
pony-boy in Key Island, and attached to the Gov- 
ernment House stables. Why he had crawled on 
to the stoep in the state he was when he had fallen 
asleep they did not ask. It was a disaster sent by 
Allah, and would bring him the kourbash, which 
was their name for Gregory’s shambok. 

The Administrator continued his interrupted way, 
walked off the stoep, and was half across the grass 
when he spied a pony trotting up the drive, and 
turned aside to speak to the rider. No man trotted 
in such heat save one in Key Island, and that was 
the O.C.T. Gregory turned back with him to the 
house. 

*‘Just the man I wanted!” he said. I was 
coming down to the club to look for you. Come 
in here.” 

Churton threw his leg over his pony’s neck, polo 
fashion, and dropped off, a groom appearing as if by 
magic to take the animal. There were so many serv- 
ants always waiting on noiseless bare feet at Gov- 
ernment House that it was rarely necessary to shout 
as Gregory had done. 

“ I’ve just had a warning,” said the Administrator, 
leading the way back into the room he had left. 

Sit down — whiskey or ceho ? ” 

“ Whiskey, thanks.” 

** A man was lying in a drunken sleep just outside 


28 o 


THE RAT-TRAP 


that window/' said the Administrator, with a back- 
ward nod, as he opened the soda-water for his guest 
himself, and poured in the spirit. “ He must have 
been there a very short time — he will lie like that 
for three days now.” 

Churton raised the glass. 

Here’s to you ! ” he said significantly. What 
was it ? Hemp ? ” 

Yes — ganja. They have given up brewing it 
because we were watching for the still, but they’ve 
got some of the crop, and they are teaching the 
natives to smoke it like opium. It means a fresh 
raid.” 

“ And more slaughter ! Well, I shall be glad of 
a little diversion.” An ugly, dark look flitted over 
the soldier’s face, and wrinkled his broad forehead. 
There seemed more grey in his thick dark hair of 
late, and a line of pain round the firm lips. “ Any 
notion where the trouble rises ?” he said. 

“ I have an idea that it’s beyond China Town, in 
that valley between the Tableland and Hashish.” 

“ But, my dear fellow, there’s no way through — 
it’s all ‘ dirty,’ and as full of scrub as it can be. I 
came down that way from shooting on the Table- 
land and found it nearly impassable. No room for 
crops.” 

“ There’s room for storage. I don’t mean in the 
valley itself, but nearer the Little Zambesi. Any- 
how I shall raid Sand Bay. There are caves there.” 

Churton sat thoughtfully for a minute, the tum- 
bler in his strong brown hand. He felt desperately 
that he would be glad of a scrimmage, if only the 
beggars would show fight. But when was a col- 
oured man game enough ? 

“ They’ve been quiet for this last month or so,” 
he said regretfully. “ Ever since that little demon- 
stration in your garden here.” 


THE RAT-TRAP 


281 


“That was a flash in the pan — it meant noth- 
ing.” 

“ It only frightened Mrs. Lewin. Have you heard 
anything of her, by the way ? ” 

“ She is still at Vohitra.” 

“ I know. My wife talks of going out there when 
Mrs. Gilderoy returns. She can’t stand her in the 
same house.” 

“ I have not seen Mrs. Lewin for some weeks — 
not since she went out, in fact,” said Gregory de- 
liberately. He looked at the man before him as if 
measuring him, almost stealthily, and licked his lips 
to moisten them in the tigerish fashion peculiar to 
him before some inhuman effort. Churton was not 
looking at him ; he leaned forward, his elbows on 
his knees, one hand still holding the half-empty 
tumbler, the other hanging loosely against his puttee. 
The massive lines of his head and neck were thrown 
into prominence by the forward thrust of his 
shoulders. 

“ Strong man to strong man ! ” said Gregory 
rapidly to his own heart. “ And I like him . . . 
but some one must go under. He has to be the 
sacrifice.” 

“ Mrs. Lewin declines to see me,” he said slowly, 
choosing his words with care. “ She not unnaturally 
connects me with her husband’s death, as I was the 
unfortunate cause of his going to East Africa. Not 
being very logical she forgets her own anxiety that 
Captain Lewin should have a chance to show what 
stuff he was made off Well, he showed it — but as 
I gave him the chance, his wife gives me the 
blame!” 

Churton nodded without speaking. His attitude 
was sympathetic so far. Then Gregory did one of 
those things that had made men follow his order 
into death itself, and die silent, having bought him 


282 


THE RAT-TRAP 


life, and — what he valued more — success. A touch 
of human weakness in his almost inhuman strength 
had been his great coup on occasions which had 
never been recorded, for something in his person- 
ality attracted men and women alike of an infinitely 
higher type than himself, and when he used that 
magnetism it had never failed him. 

He laid his hand on Churton’s shoulder, and his 
quick panting voice was a broken whisper. 

“ Churton, I’m desperate ! She is everything to 
me — but her husband, dead, is a stronger barrier 
even than living. She is making a shrine of his 
memory, and thinks she must be faithful to it.” 

The real secret of Gregory’s influence was that 
his appeal was genuine, though made with a further 
end in view. He did not lay bare his secrets for a 
light reason. He could feel his own earnestness 
touching Bute Churton in spite of self-interest and 
the reserve of training and tradition. He looked 
up with a haggard face that would have shaken any 
resolution less ruthless than Gregory’s. 

“ Is that how it is? ” he said quietly. “ Well, you 
have my best wishes. And you can tell her that 
she owes no allegiance to her husband’s memory, I 
— knew him more intimately than she. Men do 
know each other so — see? He was not faithful 
to her, even after six months.” He paused, set the 
empty tumbler on the table as if in complete con- 
trol of his nerves, and added in the same level tone : 
“ You had better make her understand that Lewin 
was no ideal for her to cherish. Otherwise — she is 
a good woman — she might not listen to you.” 

Gregory drew a breath of relief that caught itself 
in his throat. The thing he had suspected was con- 
firmed — at least he had tacit consent from Churton 
to use his suspicion. The sacrifice of the man be- 
fore him in extracting such a bitter confession was^ 


THE RAT-TRAP 


283 


as always, a second consideration to his own gain. 
He held an advantage now to use in his own behalf 
with Leoline Lewin, and if it had been necessary to 
drag Churton through the mire of mentioning his 
wife’s very name he would not have stopped at do- 
ing so, nor did he doubt his own success. He was 
quick to reckon chances, and the vulnerable points 
of those with whom he had to deal — such insight 
had been a necessity to him. He knew that the 
more generous nature had been touched by the un- 
locking of his own secret ; nothing less would have 
worked on him to admit as much as he had. He 
took his hand off Churton’s shoulder, and said, 
“ Thank you, old fellow ! ” as simply as a school- 
boy, and Churton thought himself rewarded. 

There was truth, too, in his saying that he was 
desperate. A kind of hunger for the woman he 
loved possessed him, and he had not seen her to 
speak to since the night when he betrayed himself 
by a too-great anxiety to bind her to him. She 
had withdrawn herself beyond reach of his imme- 
diate influence, and he dared not force her to an en- 
counter. Twice he had been at Port Albert, and 
had found Vohitra closed to him— by Mrs. Lewin’s 
own request he paid her no visit of condolence. 
He could not realise that the tie between them was 
not endangered by absence, or that material things 
had no influence upon Leoline’s feelings for him. 
A man loves with his five senses ; but a woman 
with all her instincts and a few over. It does not 
really matter to her if he is ill-favoured, or has given 
her a badly-cooked dinner, or a world divides them, 
or he talks about himself, or some one has burnt the 
fat and the smell is pervading the house — so long as 
he is her chosen to her she can go on love-making, 
in fancy if need be, without distraction. But you 
must satisfy the eyes, and the palate, and the long- 


284 


THE RAT-TRAP 


ing touch, and the egotistical ear, and the sensitive 
nose, before a man is well pleased and thinks ten- 
derly of the opposite sex. Long before Leoline 
Lewin was ripe for seeing him again, Gregory was 
fretting because he thought his influence slackened 
by distance. He wanted to bring the power of his 
personality to bear again before he could feel sure 
of his ultimate success. 

At first, as the days lengthened into weeks, he 
had been patient to let her recover from the shock 
of her husband’s death, to go away and mourn for 
him if need be, for decency’s sake. But he had 
meant to see her under the cloak of a conventional 
sympathy, and when he found himself denied her 
presence he chafed, and then, risking Mrs. Gilde- 
roy’s eyes, he wrote to her. It had been difficult to 
answer, in the face of her own renewed desire, but 
she had quietly demanded time. She was going 
home next mail ; she would see him to say good- 
bye, and they might meet again in England. Her 
date of meeting had a far-off sound, and he realised 
that conventional widowhood meant at least a year’s 
probation. To the man of immediate action, a man 
like Gregory, such flimsy delays were irritating ; 
and yet he recognised the importance of social 
standing, and the slur of a hurried marriage. At 
least he must force a definite promise before the 
mail arrived and she slipped beyond his grasp, and 
even to do this meant a violation of her husband’s 
memory. It was then that Gregory thought of cer- 
tain hints he had heard of his A.D.C. and the 
women of the station, for Halton had carried adder’s 
poison under his tongue to justify his own devotion 
in the earlier days of his intimacy with Mrs. Lewin. 
Absorbed in weightier matters, and contemptuous 
of gossip, Gregory had not interested himself in 
such slight things as Alaric Lewin’s infidelities, and 


THE RAT-TRAP 


285 


when his need came, he could remember nothing 
but an outline. He did not know, however, whither 
his incompetent aide had always been lured away 
from duty, and his own savage strictures on tennis 
and Maitso recurred to him. The inference was 
natural, and with a broad master-stroke of policy, 
he drained Diana’s husband for information — the 
man most unlikely to know on the surface of things, 
the man most likely to know in Gregory's sardonic 
experience of such situations. These things always 
leaked out, and worked to silent tragedies between 
husband and wife. Churton would know — and for 
his own ends Evelyn Gregory could make use even 
of a dead man’s gallantries. 

Up in the silence of Vohitra a runner brought a 
letter to Leoline Lewin a day or so after Churton 
had spoken with the Administrator. At the sight 
of the hand-writing her heart stood still again, and 
she did not think to look at the messenger, who, 
according to the date of the missive, should have 
been there before. There was a restless excitement 
about the man, half fear, half exultation, for he 
brought other news than that in the letter — but 
Mrs. Lewin found her own sufficient for the moment, 
and read and re-read the small characteristic writing 
as if fascinated. 

Gregory was never merciful. He tore the last of 
her illusions from her, and laid bare a grizzly truth 
— though he did it in decent words — without com- 
punction. Certain sentences in that letter seemed 
to buzz in her ears without keeping the connec- 
tion. They meant nothing, and yet they meant so 
much. 

“ If you are refusing to see me from a feeling of 
loyalty to Captain Lewin your sacrifice is thrown 
away, for he was not loyal to you. . . .” 

No? Not even the faith in her married life left 


286 


THE RAT-TRAP 


to her ? Married one short year, and she could not 
keep her husband’s fidelity — she felt the humiliation 
of the bald statement in Gregory’s words. It had 
been another of her theories that a woman like her- 
self could keep any man. It seemed that all her 
virtues and attractions had not prevented Alaric 
from straying. And where had he strayed ? With 
innocent conceit she had seen herself the fairest, 
best-gowned, quickest-witted woman, at all events 
in the little shoddy Station. But it appeared that 
she was less invincible than she thought. Other 
sentences in that letter followed to enlighten her. 

“ I am not speaking on my own authority. 
Other men — Major Churton principally — confirm 
my assertion that your husband was no pattern of 
fidelity. You can guess for whom he left you — we 
need not attack his memory for a thing that is over 
and done with. But to vow to be true to one who 
could hardly demand it as due to him is making the 
position ridiculous. . . . 

‘‘ I am only supposing that this is what has 
closed your heart to me. But am I not at least as 
worthy of allegiance as Lewin ? Understand that 
it was not merely a venial sin, such as you may call 
your own during his absence — I have Churton’s 
testimony, poor fellow. . . .” 

Then it was as if a blaze of pain blotted out the 
words of the letter for a moment. She saw and 
recognised many things in that sacrifice of Bute 
Churton’s name. Di . . . and Ally! The hor- 

rible vulgarity of it, the degradation of even her 
slight friendship with the woman, made her revolt. 
She could have forgiven it better had he done such 
a thing with half a world between them, even though 
his partner in guilt had professed to like her ; but in 
the narrow confines of Port Victoria it seemed 
abominable. Her last ideal was torn from her, and 


THE RAT-TRAP 


287 


the worst of it was that in the light of Ally’s back- 
sliding she saw what her own had nearly been. In 
her thoughts, her desires, perhaps, she had been 
worse, since his passions, like his whole nature, were 
slighter than her own. She rose to her feet in that 
intolerable revelation, the letter crushed in her hand 
. . . and for the first time she saw, consciously, 

the native runner who had brought it. 

He had been waiting with hideous eagerness to 
catch her attention. The minute he saw that she 
was looking at him with expectation he babbled 
with speech, his head nodding vaguely towards the 
way he had come, childish eagerness and horrid en- 
joyment in his face. 

“ I heap big trouble to come through. Missus. 
The land is up — they dance the Cannab dance in 
Po’ Victoria.” 

She caught her breath, and her wide blazing eyes 
held his like a snake’s. 

“ What is that you say ? Tell me more. What 
has happened ? ” 

“ You hear nothing hyar ? No — the ra not reach 
you. The Panjaka-Baas ” 

“ Mr. Gregory — the Administrator — yes ? ” She 
knew that queer native jumble of a title for him, for 
panjaka means king or head lord, and the South 
African baas or master had drifted into Key Island 
with the white man’s authority. 

“ First he burn the Cannab — but the Chiney man 
he keep back some. Then the Panjaka-Baas he 
guess there is some still, for the nigger still get 
drunk.” He rubbed his hands and grinned as if in 
delighted reminiscence. They make a raid at 
Sand Bay and find the Cannab cane — lots an’ lots 
hidden there ! And then the land is up and they 
dance ! ” 

Leoline, without turning her eyes away, as though 


288 


THE RAT-TRAP 


afraid he might escape if she did, called, Mrs. Gil- 
deroy ! ” Her friend answered her from the house, 
and a minute later came out on to the stoep, with a 
sharp glance of surprise at the runner. 

“ He brought me a letter,” Mrs. Lewin explained 
briefly. “ He comes from Port Victoria. Tell this 
lady what you have told me ! ” she commanded. 

The native did so, laughing inanely through the 
narrative, and helped on by Leoline’s prompting. 

Ra ! ” (blood) said the native. “ Heaps ra ! ” The 
two women looked at each other with ashen faces. 

‘‘ Is it true, do you think ? ” Mrs. Lewin said. 

“ I don’t know — but I must go to my husband,” 
said Mrs. Gilderoy decidedly. 

“ I thought you might wish.” 

I shall get down to Port Albert to-night, and 
take to-morrow’s boat. I can telephone through 
from there too. If only we had one here ! ” 

“No telephone. Wires cut ! ” jabbered the 
runner. 

“ Oh, good heavens ! . . . Will you come 

too, or remain here ? ” said Mrs. Gilderoy, control- 
ling herself and turning to Mrs. Lewin. 

“ I shall stay here — at present. There is nothing 
I could do there, and I should only be in the way 
with no man to look after me. In a few days I may 
come round, the mail is nearly due.” 

“ But, my dear, the land is up — that means that 
the natives have risen all over the island, I expect.” 

“I am not afraid.” 

“ Well, I am ! ” said Mrs. Gilderoy honestly. 
“ Afraid for my husband, if not for myself. Can’t 
we get more news out of this creature ? Make him 
speak. Chum, for goodness sake, or I shall kill him 
with kourbash ! My riding-crop is heavy ! ” 

“ Tell us more,” said Mrs. Lewin briefly to the 
native. “ Are any matz (dead) of this ra ? ” (blood). 


THE RAT-TRAP 289 

She mixed up Malagasy and English in her desper- 
ation. 

“ Many, Missus, the soldiers charge, and the 
people fall. But they kill one baas — yes, an 
officer ! ” 

Who ? Who was it ? What was his name ? ” 
Mrs. Gilderoy, like a leaping fury, had seized him 
by the shoulder and shook him in a frenzy of fear, 
so that he could only chatter and jabber at her in- 
coherently. She was suddenly transformed to a 
mad woman in her anxiety. Beneath all her worldly 
wisdom and ironical remarks on the married state, 
she loved one man, and that was Wray Gilderoy. 
It was strange how this bitter-tongued couple had 
kept the sweetness of their union beneath all their 
jeering at other people’s matrimony. Leoline felt 
it a real and consequently a precious thing, while 
she gently disengaged the native from Mrs. Gilde- 
roy’s clutch. 

“ You are only frightening him — he cannot speak 
to tell you,” she said. “ Now think, Zanzalaky — 
what is the name of the officer who is — who is — 
killed?” 

“ ’Milton Gourney, Missus ! ” 

“ Gourney — Gurney ! Hamilton Gurney ! Oh, 

poor young fellow ! ” 

She remembered the one thing that people always 
did distinguish in Gurney’s vapid individuality — his 
voice. All the soul of the man seemed to lie in 
that good gift, and a lump rose in her throat at the 
memory of the songs that were hushed for ever. 
It seemed as wicked to have shot him as to shoot a 
nightingale. 

But Mrs. Gilderoy had dropped into the nearest 
chair, and was moaning hysterically in her relief. 
The women she had laughed at for a too-demonstra- 
tive attachment to their husbands could have taken 


290 


THE RAT-TRAP 


an ample revenge could they have seen her then. 
But Mrs. Levvin felt only the deeper side of it, and 
saw no bathos in the rocking, undignified figure, 
tortured with being a woman and impotent while 
the man she cared for was exposed to danger in the 
proper course of things. They seemed to her to 
have left self-consciousness behind them and the 
shame that dogs an exhibition of real feeling, so 
that Vohitra always appeared in Leoline’s memory 
as a little stage and scenic effects to the intensity of 
two or three figures — her own and Mrs. Gilderoy’s 
at the present moment. 

She had no time to think of herself and her pri- 
vate anxiety during the next few hours, through 
which it seemed to her she felt neither heat nor tire, 
but pushed the frightened useless black servants 
aside and packed her friend’s belongings for her 
with capable hands. It was only when Mrs. Gilde- 
roy had stumbled away down the hillside, hardly 
guiding her pony for the first time on record, that 
she had the leisure to face her own intolerable dread. 
Her cheek was wet where Mrs. Gilderoy had kissed 
her, but not with her own tears. She had no open 
right to cry, but she looked at the letter which had 
seemed only a new dismay a few hours ago, and 
thought that it might be the last she should ever 
receive in that handwriting. . . . 

For if there were any concerted attack, and or- 
ganised hate in the brain maddened by hashish and 
ganja, it would all be directed against the Adminis- 
trator. Gregory was the man to fall, by treachery 
or open warfare, and she recognised the maddening 
position she was in by being cut off from news. 
Even if she went down to Port Albert the telephone 
wires were cut, and they were dependent for infor- 
mation on the little coasting steamers which at best 
were irregular. When Mrs. Gilderoy had asked if 


THE RAT-TRAP 


291 


she would stay at Vohitra or come back with her, 
Leoline had answered with the unselfish impulse of 
her love, seeing in a flash of comprehension that 
her presence would only hamper Gregory, and par- 
alyse his action with a private anxiety. She had 
not thought of herself at all in that moment, nor 
did she regret her decision now by the light of rea- 
son ; but her heart cried out in its distress that her 
place was with him, and that not to know of his 
safety was unbearable, with a desire as great as Mrs. 
Gilderoy’s. She had no right to act the weak 
woman, and please herself at the expense of the 
man she loved — no right justified, like Mrs. Gilde- 
roy’s, by years of open marriage. Gregory would 
believe her safe at Vohitra, and be freer to use the 
brain and nerve, in which she took some comfort, 
remembering the night when he had cleared the 
stoep, alone, with no weapon but a shambok. But 
she realised, during the next few days, that she 
had set herself the hardest task that a woman 
can — to wait and endure the anxiety in silence, 
that a man may feel her a helpmate, and not a 
burden. 

Life went on the same in the Tsara Valley in 
spite of the panic that threatened the whole island. 
The coloured people were cutting the cane, driven 
by the dogged wills of a few strong white men, 
whose grim determination triumphantly proved 
them once more the dominant race. The planters 
saved their crops as if nothing had happened to 
upset the usual ' routine of harvest, and though 
labour was scarce, they quietly forced the natives 
who had not been drawn to the centre of trouble to 
work as usual. There had been a meeting at Port 
Albert, and a concerted plan of action agreed upon 
amongst those men most experienced in the island, 
the result being that the rioting in the other districts 


292 


THE RAT-TRAP 


hardly affected the little seaport, and the sugar har- 
vest was not ruined. Gradually the influence of 
these few men made itself felt amongst the danger- 
ous numbers of mixed races ; and Mrs. Lewin, from 
the stoep at Vohitra, saw the dark forms bending in 
the furrows, the mellowing blades falling, and, leav- 
ing the ground shorn of its gold-green glory, the 
trucks pass up and down the whole sweep of the 
valley, while the factory smoked through the long, 
hot days. Once the town warden rode out to pay 
her a hurried visit, and give her what news he could ; 
but he was a busy man — Gregory’s representative, 
and the despot of the town — and could spare but 
little time. He left some of his own servants at 
Vohitra whom he could trust, and asked Mrs. 
Lewin quietly if she could charge and fire a re- 
volver. 

“ Yes,” she said briefly, remembering that Greg- 
ory had asked her the same question once before, at 
the last threatened rising. 

“ I have brought you one of mine — you had 
better keep it by you,” Ambroise said cheerfully. 
“ I don’t think there will be the least necessity for 
it, but it is as well that the people about you should 
know you are armed.” 

“ Have you any news ? ” 

“ The island is quieting down, and I do not think 
anyhow it would spread out this way. But there 
has been real fighting at Port Victoria, and the 
troops were called out. One poor fellow was killed 
in the first skirmish — Hamilton Gurney. Did you 
know him ?” 

“ Yes. I used to admire his voice so much. 
Poor fellow ! How was it ? ” 

There was a rush in the Square, and they got 
him up against the Market buildings. You know 
those steps ? He was trying to get through the 


THE RAT-TRAP 


293 


mob with some girl, and they stabbed him with a 
razor they had looted from a private house. No 
one knows who did it, of course.” 

“ Where were the troops ? ” 

“ They arrived on the scene three minutes later. 
It was very sudden — those risings always are — and 
Gurney had no warning. He was not in uniform 
at all, or with his men — he had been in town, and 
was going to ride out to Maitso, but he had not had 
any orders even.” 

“ And the girl ? ” 

Oh, the girl is all right, except that she had 
hysterics. Two or three white people were 
wounded, and about a hundred niggers have been 
killed — I wish it had been a thousand ! ” said Am- 
broise savagely. “ But I think they have had a 
lesson.” 

“ Port Victoria is quiet, then? I wonder if I 
might go round ? The mail is almost due,” she 
added with an instinct of caution to veil her real 
reason. 

“ Well, it is getting that way, but I think you are 
better off here at present. It was the most sensible 
thing you could do to stop here. The place will be 
lamb-like when you do see it again. As far as 
Key’land goes such a rising was just what was 
wanted.” 

But the loss of life ! ” she exclaimed with a 
shudder. 

“ You can’t help that, and you can only teach the 
natives respect for the British Empire by a military 
lesson delivered some time or other. Last time, 
you see, they got off with a warning, and we all felt 
that once the troops were here they ought to be 
punished. Most places catch it that have Gregory 
as Administrator, and are chastened afterwards. 
He is the right man in the right place — I’d rather 


294 


THE RAT-TRAP 


work under him than any man who comes out with 
a theory of ‘ It’s all done by kindness.’ ” 

She tried to keep her face from tingling, and 
smiled faintly. “ You are almost as drastic in your 
views as the Administrator. Has he — has he come 
out of the fray unscathed? ” 

“ Oh, he’s all right — so far.” Ambroise laughed, 
unknowing that his words frightened her. “ He has 
given them a dose of Gregory’s Powder, and they 
are making wry faces over it. But he is a man who 
always carries his life in his hand, Mrs. L^win — he 
always will, wherever he is.” 

She turned away, sick at heart. In her ignorance 
of the fate that pressed her rapidly, she pictured 
herself far off from Gregory, in England, thinking of 
those words that his admiring lieutenant had said. 
Wherever he might go he would carry his life in 
his hand, from his savage unofficialism that never 
got into the papers, and she for a year at least would 
be as helpless and uncognisant of his movements 
and fate as she was now. She had no premonition 
that those whose lives were interwoven with Greg- 
ory’s were whirled into quick action with his over- 
mastering vitality, and hurried out of the usual 
course of events. Life always went quickly with 
him. He did not lose time through being handi- 
c'lpped by red tape of any description, as his Serv- 
ice was grimly aware. But these things were hid 
in secret drawers at the Colonial Office, and filed for 
censure about once in every appointment that 
Evelyn Gregory had ever had. 

Mrs. Gilderoy had been gone but three or four 
days when in the evening of that following Am- 
broise’s visit one of the servants brought Leoline a 
note from her, saying that it had come by a mes- 
senger who was waiting. Mrs. Lewin had been sit- 
ting at the improvised writing-table in her own bed- 


THE RAT-TRAP 


295 


room — one of those passion-haunted rooms from 
whose suggested associations she could never get 
away after Mrs. Gilderoy had put the fancy into her 
head. With the note in her hand she rose at once 
and went across the passage and out on to the 
stoep, because the natives usually waited there. 
Her long black gown swished across the bare boards 
as she went, where other women’s had whispered in 
the same feminine tongue during long-dead summers. 

— except poor Gurney, who paid the forfeit of 
his life for running after Trixie Denver anyhow. 
How matters stood between them one doesn’t know, 
but the girl is behaving as if she were his fiancee at 
least — if not his widow ! She goes about in deep 
mourning ” 

Leoline put the letter on one side to read pres- 
ently, raised her eyes as she came out on to the 
stoep, and saw Evelyn Gregory. 

The sun was setting behind Vohitra, but the 
house faced north-east, and the late long beams still 
struck that side of the stoep where they met. Their 
faces were in the shadow, the dusty light only bath- 
ing them warmly to the waist, and she saw that 
there was some strong purpose in his seeking her 
here even as she met his eyes. For a minute she 
seemed to wait between one life and another before 
he spoke — the old theoretical life of her untried 
girlhood, dear with the bright things of the world, 
that even her wifehood had left unaltered ; and the 
deeper painful realities of existence that he had 
called into being for her. She knew, before he 
spoke, that a decision awaited her now, as to 
whether she should pass definitely from one to the 
other, and it seemed to her that she hardly faltered. 

“ I have come to you to put a choice before you,” 
he said, even as he took her hand and held it in his 
strong grip. He gave her no conventional greeting, 


296 


THE RAT-TRAP 


though so much had happened since they had said 
good-bye in the bungalow . . . the night 

before she got Ally’s letter. “ I have very little time 
to spare — I must go back in an hour at most. The 
town is under my authority at present, and I am 
responsible.” 

His word told her enough. ‘‘You have been re- 
called ! ” she said quietly. 

“ Yes ; Halton has reached England,” he said 
significantly. “ But apart from any private pulling 
of the strings, I expected this — perhaps. There 
was just a chance I might wire through, but it was 
unlikely. They are sending out another man.” 

“ From England? ” 

“ Ultimately. From Capetown at present.” 

“ And you go home? ” 

“ As things now stand — officially. But I have 
private information that I am to go to Central 
Africa again.” 

“ Is this ” — she moistened her dry lips — “ because 
of Port Cecil ? ” 

“ Partly, I suppose. It was touch-and-go there 
after Lewin’s death.” (Did he ever shrink before 
a name ? She could not have spoken so.) “ But 
Melton Hanney pulled the Empire out of a war. 
He should get something for that ! ” He smiled 
grimly. 

“ You have heard from Capetown ? ” 

“ I have.” He spoke more grimly still. Into 
his hard eyes flashed the passing soreness of a 
spoiled ambition. And he had meant to do so 
much with that insignificant tool. Key Island! — 
to make it so much the very centre of warring 
destinies that no one in after years could speak of 
it without an historical significance. He knew, as 
even she could not understand, the result of the 
thing he had dared to do, and he saw his future, 


THE RAT-TRAP 


297 


perhaps, as another man did, “ behind him ! ” For 
one cannot stake Empires and not lose something, 
even though one win a private and personal gain. 
Something was left him out of the wreck on which 
to begin to build anew — a fresh incentive to rise in 
the fair woman before him, whom he had coveted 
to the height of tossing lives aside for her, and com- 
mitting tactic murder. He stretched out his hands 
and took hers gently. 

“ Will you come into the wilderness with me ? ” 
he said, with a curious little smile. “ Dare you be 
my wife and share my fortunes — now ? ” 

For a second she half drew back, not at the thing 
he suggested, but the hurry it implied. “ At once 
— so soon ? breathed her training. 

“ At once — so soon ! ” he echoed, not one line of 
concession in his face or voice. “ That wherever I 
go I may take you with me. I am not offering you 
an easy position, or an establishment in life, I assure 
you ! I am a man who wants his wife beside him, 
wherever it is possible. I shall very likely want you 
where most men would say it was not possible. If 
you are afraid for your children, it may mean part- 
ing from them, or if we can make a home where 
other men give up all hope of family ties, I shall 
ask you to risk it." 

“ I am not afraid ! " she said proudly, but rather 
breathlessly. 

“ Except for the weight of public opinion against 
a hurried marriage? I meant to spare you that. 
But things are worse with me than I hoped they 
might be, and the stroke fell more swiftly." He set 
his teeth and thought of Halton. “ I have not much 
to offer you ! " he said, and his voice had suddenly 
hoarsened. “ But I think you love me — I know I 
love you. There is trouble for us in the future, but 
I have still the fighting powers that have made me 


298 


THE RAT-TRAP 


what I am. I can give you love, and strength to 
win you back the position that I have imperilled for 
you." His voice sharpened still more with sudden 
fear, and his hands tightened on hers. Even she 
did not realise how great the dread of losing her had 
been, but it drove him almost to an appeal. Leo, 
in common humanity you will not turn from me 
now?" 

How much we mean by that word humanity ! 
It contains all the virtues with which we do not 
credit God. Perhaps Leoline felt that a little more 
was being asked of her than the simply human 
side would have acceded, but the diviner spark 
burned up to meet the demand upon it. She looked 
into his compelling eyes, and in that moment of her 
love, perfected, she cast out fear for ever. 

“ I will come with you ! " was all she said ; and 
it was her arms as well as his that drew them 
together. 

“ God bless you ! " she heard him say with the 
old under-breathed voice she knew, and that had 
thrilled her out of all theories into the pain and 
glory of womanhood. “ God keep you safely, and 
bless you, my darling ! " It is when a strong man 
loves something better than himself that he feels his 
impotence, and hastens to charge it on the Deity he 
affects to do well without, himself. The most irre- 
ligious men are always ready to pray above the 
heads nearest and dearest to them. Gregory, who 
would have snapped any commandment left unde- 
fended by law, called on the Unknown God to do 
the one thing of which he felt himself incapable. 
With the woman he had loved in his arms he fell 
back on an instinct which is greater even than 
habit — 

“ God bless you, because you are my darling ! " 

The sun had reached the hill crest, and his last 


THE RAT-TRAP 


299 


level glow touched their faces at last with unnatural 
fire. F'or a minute Leoline was dazzled, but through 
the haze she looked out over the half-reaped valley, 
and it was as if she saw Key Island in symbol, the 
strange little place to which she had come so light- 
heartedly to find fate and tragedy there. His glance 
followed hers, but he saw nothing of the peaceful 
harvest or rest at evening time. To his steady gaze 
the red light was War and his future wrapped in 
smoke. He did not fear, and he did not repent, be- 
cause he had long since counted the cost, and reck- 
oned it as gain ; but he knew, as that old-time coun- 
terpart of his sin had known, that there was no 
peace for him or his — and that because he had de- 
spised the unwritten law. War should be his portion 
for ever, as clearly as if the prophet had said to him 
also, “ Now therefore the sword shall never depart 
from thine house ! ” 

And the woman for whom he had sinned knew 
also that there was a shadow on their lives for ever, 
cast by the man they had sacrificed, and that she 
could never dare to look her love bravely in the 
face without that dark reservation that she thrust 
out of sight. She did not repent either — with her 
hand in that of the man she loved she was ready to 
go with him into the wilderness as he had said, and 
let him lead her where he would, the stony places 
were gentle so long as it was his path also. But 
her eyes, as they looked over the golden transfig- 
ured valley, held all the pain of the love that is 
eartli-marred, and she knew that the tragedy of her 
life lay in that sealing of their destinies. 


THE END 


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